


Sang Songs For Deaf Ears

by Purpleforest516



Series: Wild Youth [1]
Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: 5SOS - Freeform, Canon Gay Relationship, Complete, Fanfic, M/M, mute character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-28
Updated: 2015-03-05
Packaged: 2018-02-27 07:49:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 31
Words: 37,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2684969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purpleforest516/pseuds/Purpleforest516
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He was singing a song but no one was listening. </p><p>The story of Ashton, a mute boy. (Lashton) </p><p>"It's the oldest story in the world. One day you're seventeen and planning for someday, and then quietly, without you ever really noticing, someday is today, and that someday is yesterday and this is your life." -Nathan Scott</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Starting Over Isn't As Easy As It Looks

♪

Ashton's parents realised that their son was mute when he was two years old and he _still_ hadn't said his first words. They had taken him to a doctor, and he had said that Ashton was incapable of speaking and he would probably never be able to speak. From that moment he and his parents immediately began to learn sign language, practicing whenever they got a chance. Ashton learned sign language faster than both of his parents, sometimes having to spell words out letter by letter when his parents didn't catch what he had signed. After a while Ashton's father had given up, and he left them.

Ashton figured it was a way for his mother to cope with the divorce when she adopted two boys. Older brothers for Ashton and his younger brother Harry. It took a while to get use to them, and Michael was the youngest sarcastic mess Ashton has ever met. It also took a lot of convincing that Calum was _not_ Asian. The two boys learned sign language, and everything ended up going well for the next couple of years.

Ashton's mother homeschooled him until he was five because she was always worried about him being bullied. After his first day of school he returned home with a bruised cheek and a torn backpack, and after that his mother continued to homeschool him.

It was his birthday and he was turning seventeen, and he desperately wanted to go to a public school. He had asked his mother on his sixteenth birthday but she had immediately refused without a second thought.

"Ashton!" his mother's voice called from downstairs. "Come and get breakfast!" Ash was sitting in his room, reading _'To Kill a Mockingbird_ ' while lying on his stomach on his bed. He looked at the book page, and then closed his book before slowly sliding off of his bed.

He stepped out of his bedroom to see his older brother looking down at him. "Hey Ashton." Michael began with a grin. Ashton eyed him, mentally preparing himself for what Michael had in store for him. "Happy birthday." Michael continued. _Somethin_ g was about to hap- Ashton lost his balance as Calum smashed into him. Michael burst out laughing as Ashton hit the floor with a groan. _"Happy birthday to you!"_ Calum sang gleefully. Ashton rolled onto his side, groaning. _Every year._

"You boys leave Ashton alone!" Ashton's mother called from the kitchen. "We didn't do anything!" Calum yelled as Michael helped Ashton up, patting him on the back. "We just wished him a happy birthday." Michael threw his arm over Ashton as they began to walk to the stairs, Calum in front of them.

They walked over to the table where Harry sat, quickly grabbing a strip of bacon and throwing it into his mouth before their mother could notice. "Greedy!" Michael said as he sat down beside him. "Greedy!" Harry mocked even though his mouth was full. Ashton sat beside Calum who was across from Michael and Harry.

Their mother sat down after placing a plate of sausage in the middle of the table. Michael, Calum and Harry immediately dove into the food, filling their plates and eating the food they grabbed. "Boys," The only woman in the house sighed. 'Tell me about it.' Ashton signed before he reached for the bowl of scrambled eggs. "We can't help it ma," Harry began, half a pancake in his mouth. "We're growing."

"Yuck, don't remind me." she sighed. Michael snorted. "What's that supposed to mean?" Their mother stuck their tongue out at the as she cut her pancakes in half.

"So, what do you want for your birthday, Ashton?" Calum asked as he reached for two more strips of bacon. Ash turned to him and nodded before raising his hands to sign. 'I want to go to school.' His mother immediately stopped chewing, and Calum let out a short, soft laugh. Ashton glared at him. "Wait, you're _serious?_ " Calum asked.

"Honey, we talked about this-" his mother began. 'Why is it fair for them to go to school?' Ashton nodded at his brothers. 'They're dimwits.'

"Hey!" the three boys said in unison after they realized what Ashton had signed. "That's why I sent them to school, sweetie." His mother sighed under her breath."Hey!" they said again.

'Please? What am I going to do after highschool? Are you going to keep homeschooling me for college?' Ashton turned to Calum. 'Is that even allowed?' Calum shrugged.

"Well it's still the beginning of the summer, so you have a while to wait." Ashton's mother said. 'I can do that.' he signed.

"I guess you can go...." Ashton laughed, standing up and walking over to his mother. He kissed her on the cheek as he made his way back to his room.

♪

August arrived quickly, shortly followed by the tons of school shopping and days spent helping Michael and Calum with last minute over-the-summer homework that they didn't do.

When the day came, Ashton woke up early to get dressed and eat, and he was actually _excited._ After showering and dressing, he took a picture or two in the mirror. Michael sat on his bed, messing with his phone. Ashton whistled, making Michael look up. It must be instinct or something, 'cause Michael automatically stuck his tongue out. After taking the picture, Ashton turned around and signed, 'You dyed your hair again.' Michael grinned. His hair was basically white on the sides, then black down the middle. "Yep, new look buddy." and with that Michael hopped off the bed and left the room.

♪

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Ashton's mother asked as they walked towards the school. He replied with a simple nod. They walked into the building, turning into the front office while Michael and the others headed off to class. "Oh, hello, you must be Ashton and his mother. You called?" The secretary smiled.

"Yes, that's us." His mother smiled as she patted him on the back lightly. "Can you follow me to the back so you can sign some papers? It'll only take a minute." Ashton's mother nodded before stepping behind the office desk, following the tall woman.

Ashton put his hands in his pockets, looking around. The school was huge and he was truly amazed. Michael had gone to tell his teacher that he had work to do at the office, amd he'd be back shortly. He was supposed to show Ashton around, and Ashton immediately was able to point out his brother in the crowd. That random black tuft of hair was hard to miss. "Ayo,"Michael said, throwing his arm over Ashton's shoulder. "People at this school can be dicks, so if you ever need anything just say something..." Michael paused. "Or whatever."

"Ah," Their mother appeared from the back and kissed Michael on the cheek. "You're a good son. Watch out for your brother." She left after hugging Ashton tightly, leaving him out of breath.

♪

Everyone had to go to their homerooms, Michael, Calum and Ashton in the same rooms. The first class after that was history and they were already talking about the revolutionary war and what not. The teacher had said he wanted to start lessons so he did. "So, when did the revolutionary war occur, Ashton?" the teacher had called on him. Ashton's eyes widened and he turned to look at Michael and Calum who were sitting behind him. Their hands shot up, waving their hands in the air to try and get the teacher's attention off of Ashton. They obviously didn't know the answer, but at least they were trying. He turned back to the teacher and shook his head. Did he know that Ashton was mute?

Afterwards, the teacher had called on Ashton many more times, still getting the response of a head shake or a shrug. He had completely ignored Michael and Calum when their hands shot up."Ashton, I'd like to see you after class," the teacher had finally said. Ashton looked at Calum and Michael in shock. It was his first day and he's already gotten in trouble.

'You'll be fine,' Calum quickly signed before the bell rang. Everyone stood up and left, but Ashton could tell that his brothers were waiting outside of the door.

"Ashton," the teacher began as the teenage boy walked up to his desk, books in his hands. "Do you want to tell me why you didn't answer any of my questions?" Ashton sighed, pointed at his mouth then shook his head. "You can't speak," there was guilt in the teacher's voice. "I'm sorry," Ashton smiled and nodded. "Go ahead to your locker, yeah?" Ashton nodded again before leaving to see Michael pacing outside of the door. "What happened?" Michael urged. Ashton shrugged. 'Nothing, I just told him I couldn't talk is all.' Ashton signed. "Do you want me to go talk to him?" Michael asked. Ashton shook his head. 'Where did Calum go?' Michael sighed, then let out a chuckle.

"His girlfriend came along. They're probably having a make out session somewhere." Michael turned and began to walk down the hall with Ashton. 'It's the first day of school...'

"That does not seem to bother them." Michael laughed. " _Fuck you..._ " Michael sang at some guy that was walking by them. 'You've been singing that all day.' Ashton signed with a grin. "It's stuck in my head." Michael sighed.

Ashton slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out a slip. It had his locker number and combination on it. He walked down the halls, ignoring the stares that he and his brother received. He finally reached his locker and Michael hit the locker to Ashton's left. "This one is my locker." Michael said with a grin. He began to enter his combination, opening it with ease. Michael put most of his books in his locker, taking out his books for math and language arts.

"Hey, Mike!" a voice called. Michael's head shot up when he spotted Calum running over. "Look who it is," Michael grinned. "You've got a little lip stick going on..." Michael pointed at the boys lip and shivered. "Disgusting." Calum wiped his lips quickly, looking at Ashton with a grin."Uh, math teacher needs to see you." Calum said. "Why?" Michael asked.

"Well she doesn't want you to fail again." Calum mumbled. Michael groaned, slamming his locker shut. " _Fuck you, fuck you very very much..."_ Michael sang under his breath. "What're you singing?" Calum scoffed. Michael just waved his hand as he turned and began to make his way down the hall. "I have to go see the Language Arts teacher." Calum mumbled. "Will you be okay on your own for a while?" Ashton nodded, shooing Calum away.

Actually, Ashton had no idea what he was doing. He couldn't open his damned locker! He let out a sigh on his fifth attempt and let his head rest on his locker. "Uh," a voice began. Ashton jumped, taking a small step back. "You must be new here," Ashton looked to see that there was a boy standing before him, with blond hair and these _blue_ eyes. He wore a black Nirvana t-shirt with black jeans."Uh-oh, sorry. Didn't mean to scare you. I'm Luke." The boy said, smiling. Ashton scratched the back of his neck. He hesitantly began to sign his name, hoping he wasn't making a fool of himself. What were the chances that this boy knew sign language?

"Oh, your name's Ashton then? Did I get that right? My sign language is a bit rusty. My sister in law is deaf so I've been picking up on some sign language." Luke surprised Ashton, making him go wide eyed. Ashton nodded excitedly. "Oh, then Ashton, do you need help with your locker?" Ashton nodded and handed him the slip with his combination on it. Luke glanced at the slip and began to put in the combination while Ashton watched closely. He opened the locker for him and smiled. Ashton placed his books into his locker as Luke handed him his slip back.

Next block was P.E, and surprisingly, Ashton and Luke were in the same class. They turned and walked down the hallway. "So, Ash," Ashton looked up at Luke, surprised by the nickname. "Did you move here from somewhere or...?" Ashton shook his head.

'Homeschooled,' he signed, looking up at Luke. Luke stared at him in confusion as they continued to walk towards the gym. Ashton sighed as he began to spell 'home'. "Home... homesch... homeschooled?" Luke guessed. Ashton nodded. Luke let out a quick 'oh,' before they came to the double doors that led to the gym.

The gym was loud and the students were filing into the locker rooms. There were bleachers stacked on top of each other in the far corner. There were six basketball hoops and only two were down. In the middle of the gym was a picture of an eagle. "You should go talk to one of our gym teachers," Luke began as he was prepared to walk into the locker room. He stopped and closed his eyes apologetically. "I'm sorry, I'll come with you." Ashton nodded as he followed the taller boy, his face red from nervousness.

"Mr. Masorti!" Luke waved before the man could follow the boys into the locker room to make sure they didn't do anything stupid. Mr. Masorti turned to look at Luke and Ashton. Mr. Masorti's hair was short and brown and he had soft, brown eyes. He wore a whistle around his neck, which lay on his white t-shirt. He wore black and blue shorts, along with Nike's. "Oh, hello Luke," the man nodded, beaming. "Who's this that you've got with you?"

"This is Ashton. He's new here and he's uh..." Luke turned to look at Ashton to make sure he had permission to tell Mr. Masorti. Ashton nodded before slipping his hands into his pockets. "He's mute." Luke told the teacher as he turned back to him. Mr. Masorti's expression slightly dropped, but it was hard to tell that his smile curved down a little.

"Well, Ash, you'll need gym clothes, won't you?" Mr. Masorti reached for a clipboard that was hanging on the wall. "What size for your shirt and shorts?" he asked. "It goes from extra small to extra extra-large." Ashton turned to Luke and signed slowly, hoping that he wouldn't have to spell out what he said again. "He's a small for both," Luke translated, taking a glance at Ash to make sure he was correct.

Ashton was really small for his age. He didn't have as much abs as Calum, and just a little bit of fat instead. Mr. Masorti nodded. "Alright, I'll be right back. I'm going to go into the locker room real quick to get your uniform for you. It's free, being the first day and all." The man turned and pushed open the door, disappearing in the crowd of undressing boys.

The two waited silently until Luke began to whistle, swaying from side to side. He then began to sing the lyrics. _"Look inside, look inside your tiny mind_ -" Ashton looked at him, obviously confused. "Uh, haha, sorry! My friend, Michael got this song stuck in my head. He's been singing it to the people he hates." Luke laughed. Ashton said nothing about him being related to Michael. He kind of hated the fact that Michael was his brother because they were so _different._

Boys started flooding out of the locker room, wearing the red and orange uniform. Mr. Masorti soon followed the boys, holding a pair of shorts and a shirt. He handed them to Ashton. "Welcome to Hell." Luke mumbled under his breath.

♪

**A/N: I posted this on Wattpad back in September, so I'm just reposting it here. My wattpad is Purpleforest516**


	2. Assholes and Highways

So Ashton how was your first day of school?” Ashton’s mother asked as they ate dinner, which was steak, green beans, corn and mashed potatoes. ‘Fine,’ he signed before cutting a small piece of steak into even smaller pieces. ‘I met someone today,’ he signed after he finished cutting his food.

“Who?” Harry asked before putting a forkful of green beans in his mouth.

‘His name is Luke. He showed me all of my classes and stuff. He’s really nice.’

“Oh, Michael and Calums friend? _H_ _e_ showed you your classes? What happened to your brothers?” She glared at Calum and Michael. Ashton ate some mashed potatoes before responding.

‘They were helping some teachers out.' His mother nodded, looking a little unsatisfied.  Michael and Calum grinned before Harry got up to get the icecream.

 ♪

Ashton and his brothers walked to school together. Michael and Calum kept apologizing for leaving him, and Ashton had told them the details about meeting Luke. “Congrats on making a new friend.” Michael grinned.‘Is that sarcasm?’ Ashton signed, eying him. Michael shook her head hesitantly. ‘You’re jealous!’ Ashton laughed as he signed quickly.

“I am not!” Michael scoffed as he began to twiddle with one of his backpack straps.

"You are jealous." Calum said quietly.

"Ay, shut up!" he said, making Calum laugh. "I've got no reason to be...jealous."

♪ **(Enormous time jump)**

“Come on Ashton, try again.” Calum instructed as Ashton placed his head on his blue locker. “You’ll never get it if you don’t try.”

‘Can you just open it for me? We’re going to be late.’ Ashton signed without lifting his head up.

“I thought Luke showed you how to do it.”

‘No, he just opens it for me.’ Calum sighed, ran a hand through his hair and placed his books in Ashton’s arms while he took the slip with his locker combination on it. “This is the only time I’m doing this for you. Then you’ll have to do it yourself, alright?” Calum squinted as he slowly put in the combination, glancing up to watch Ashton sign. 'What if I never get it?’

“Then I guess you won’t be using your locker this year.”  H ereplied as he opened the locker, taking his books back from Ashton. Ashton put his books in neatly, grabbing his ‘To kill a Mockingbird’ book. He had brought it to school the day before, but never got the chance to read any pages from where he left off.

“The bell’s going to ring in two minutes. Let’s get to the gym, yeah?” Calum led the way down the hall, avoiding the loud crowds of teenagers close to each other, making the hallway even smaller. As soon as they entered the gym, a girl grabbed Calum’s wrist and pulled him away, forcing Calum to throw his books to the side. He looked back at Ashton apologetically as the girl barked rapidly in his ear, her eyes wide with excitement.

Ashton threw his books to the side as well, crossing his arms and staring at his feet. _They left me again_. Ash thought. He shook his head. _They've got other friends. What did I expect? They can't spend all say worrying about their baby broth-._   Ashton let out a gasp as he hit someone’s back. Ashton stumbled backwards, his hands by his sides now as he looked up in shock while the boy turned around. Ashton relaxed a little when he saw that it was Luke that he had run into and Ashton was now signing an apology, hands shaking from nervousness. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t see you. I wasn’t paying attention. That was my fault, please forgive me—' Luke smiled as he held up his hands, taking a step towards Ashton. “Ash, it’s fine. You bumped into me. You didn’t push me in front of a car or anything.” Luke paused to scratch the back of his head. “Are you alright?” Ashton nodded slowly, his hands steadying a little.        

“So how do you like it here so far?” Luke asked with a beaming smile. 'It’s fine, I guess.’ Ashton signed with a shrug. 'I don’t know I’ve been here for two months.’

“Oh come on, be a little more enthusiastic.” Luke clapped his hands then threw them in the air. “From a scale to a living hell to a heaven on Earth how would you rate this school?” Luke’s hands were now behind his back as he bent over to meet Ash’s height. ‘I suppose a highway to hell. ’ Ashton signed sluggishly.

“See! There we go! Now that’s school spirit. You’re getting the hang of hating this school.” Luke laughed.  Luke then turned, cupped his hands around his mouth and sang as loudly as possible, " _I'm on the highway to hell!"_ The other students in the gym copied what he sang. Ashton scratched his neck nervously. He tapped Luke's shoulder, making him turn around and look at him. 'Won't you get in trouble for that?' Ashton signed. Luke shook his head. "Mr. Masorti doesn't care." Luke grinned.

“Alright boys, locker rooms!” They heard Mr. Masorti call. Luke and Ashton watched as boys and girls ran across the gym towards the locker rooms before they went inside themselves.

♪

Ashton stepped out of the locker room, fixing his white t-shirt. Luke was close behind Ashton, whispering to him to step aside so Josh, the school dickhead,  doesn’t slam the both of them to the ground. Ashton did as he was told while Luke stepped the other way just in time for Josh to zoom past them behind a thin, pale boy who looked like the devil was on his heels. “Poor Erik,” Luke mumbled. “Josh’s bullying him again. He’s been bullying him since freshman year.”

‘Has anyone tried to stop him?’  Ashton asked, watching helplessly. Luke nodded.

“I have, every time.  The last time Josh beat me so bad I was sent to the hospital. He only got suspended. It’s not even fair.” Luke winced and sucked his teeth while Ashton jumped as Erik hit the floor with a slam.  ‘How come none of the teachers notice?’

“None of the teachers are there.” Luke sighed. “Josh knows Mr. Masorti and Ms. Cloven won’t leave the locker rooms until everyone’s dressed.” Luke took a step towards Josh and Erik as Josh began to kick Erik repeatedly in the stomach.

Erik cried out in pain as Luke burst into a sprint towards Josh, pushing him away from the crying boy. “Don’t you think you’ve done enough damage?” Luke snapped as he took a step to stand over Erik, who was now curled into a ball. Josh flipped him off and walked towards a group of boys who were whispering and laughing.

Ashton was now by Luke’s side as he bent over and began to whisper softly to Erik. “Come on. Let me take you to the nurse.” Luke reached for the boy and slowly, but steadily lifted the shaking boy. “Ash, I’ll see you later, alright?” Ashton nodded, still shocked. He watched as Luke carried Erik out of the gym.

Someone tapped his shoulder, making him jump and spin around. He sighed when he saw Michael and Calum. “Was Josh at it again?” Calum asked, worry in his voice. Ashton nodded. "Luke's a good guy. I've know him for a while." Michael huffed. “Promise me you’ll stay away from Josh, though. I don’t want something like that happening to you.”

‘It shouldn’t be happening to anyone. How come Josh hasn’t been expelled yet?’ Ashton was obviously frustrated.

“The reason why he’s still here is because his family is filthy, disgustingly rich. His family can make another rich family poor if they went to court. I hate to say it but Josh is ruling the school. Promise me you’ll steer clear of him.” Michael had a serious tone to his voice. Ashton nodded.

‘He’s a complete and total ass.’ Ashton signed, making Michael and Calum grin.

**A/N: I don't know it's just a thing I do where I make Josh a dick in 90% of my stories**.~Blue


	3. Imperial

Luke had suddenly stopped showing up to school for the rest of the week. Erik returned just two days later, but there was no sign of Luke. Ashton wanted to text him but he didn’t get his digits and he didn’t want to ask Luke for it either. That would mean something, wouldn’t it? If Luke wanted Ashton to text him he’d give him his number. Rumour had it that Josh had done something horrible to Luke and that he was in the hospital again. Ashton couldn’t and wouldn’t believe something like that. Ashton barely knows Luke, but Michael and Calum say he's a good guy. Ashton can tell Luke’s the opposite of Josh and he’s smart and he knows how to defend himself. Maybe it was just family problems. Speaking of family problems.

♪

“I have to go on a business trip,” Ashton’s mother stated at the dinner table. “It’s very important and I can’t miss it. I’ll be gone for the weekend. I’ll be back Monday morning.” Michael clapped, tossing a left over piece of corn bread from last night into his mouth. “Michael, I don’t want you inviting anyone over.”

"I know, I won't." Michael said with an innocent smile. "Michael Gordon-"

"Mum! Shhhhh," Michael placed his index finger on his lips. "I've got this." She let our a sigh before continuing. “There’s food in the fridge.  _No. Parties._ Do you understand me?”  Michael nodded.

“Don’t worry mum. We’ll be fine.” Ashton already knew what was coming.

♪

‘Don’t do it.’ Ashton signed as soon as his mum pulled out of the driveway in their silver Ford. “What?”  Michael asked almost too innocently. ‘You’re going to throw a party.’ Ashton continued as Calum continued to wave out the window even though the car was already out of sight. “No I’m not.”  
‘You’re going to throw a party and we all know it.’  
“Mike’s throwing a party? Will there be cake?” Harry called from the kitchen, watching Ashton sign from a distance.  “Alright, I’m throwing a party,” Michael grinned casually while Ashton scoffed. ‘You’re going to get caught.’

“I won’t get caught, trust me. I’ve done plenty of things without mum finding out.” Michael pulled out his cellphone while Calum pulled out his. ‘Michael don’t do it.’

“It'll be cool.” he began as he began to type on her phone.  'You're serious about this?'

"Yep. Alright, the party doesn't start till seven. How about we get some coffee?" Michael threw his arm over Ashton's shoulder. "Calum and Harry will set up for the party." he yelled, earning a groan from Calum.

♪

Ashton watched as Michael drank his third Grande eagerly, (when he drank too much coffee things got insane) stopping to savour the flavour in his mouth. Ashton had eaten a pound cake since he didn’t want coffee. Ashton rested his chin on his hand when he saw Michael shook the empty cup and frowned. “Do you think I should buy another?” Michael whispered as if Calum were watching. Ashton shook his head with a grin.

‘That doesn’t seem like a good idea.’ He signed.  “Hm,” Michael shrugged, placing the cup on the table. “I guess you’re right. Should we go to the library? Any book's you're interested in?” Ashton replied with a shrug. Michael nodded, grabbed the large, empty coffee cup and threw it into the nearest trashcan before leaving the shop, Ashton close behind him. 

Ashton’s hands were in his pockets and he stared at the ground. Michael was silent, even though he was walking extremely fast from the caffeine. Ashton jumped when he heard his brother gasp, “Ash, look out!”  Ashton bumped into someone’s side, freezing as soon as he hit them. Michael was now close beside him, his hand tight on his arm.  Ashton laughed nervously when he saw that he had bumped into Luke, again. “I s’pose that’s your way of saying ‘hi’.” Luke grinned. Michael released her grip on Ashton and laughed. ‘Sorry,’ he signed, running a hand through his hair.

“Nah, it’s fine. Hey Mike.” Luke nodded at the hyper boy. Michael nodded in return. “So what are you two doing out? Just getting coffee?”

"I'm throwing a party." Michael whispered.

“Yeah,” Luke sighed, pulling out his phone. "I got your text."

"Are you coming?" Michael asked. Luke shrugged.  "I guess."

“So I s’pose you’ve got nothing else to do then?” Luke suddenly said.

“Yeah,” Michael answered. “We were going to the library, unless you’ve got any other ideas. Any places worth going?"

“I know the perfect place. It’s _imperial_.”

“Oh, I love it when you use advanced words like that." Michael mocked. Luke snorted. "Ah, shut up." Luke laughed.

♪

"Why are we going off the road?” Michael asked, scratching the back of his head in protest. Luke had led them for blocks without saying a word about this _"imperial"_ place. Luke just hushed him while Ashton scratched his arm. ‘Come on, tell us where you’re taking us.’ Ashton stepped in front of Luke to sign.

“I already told you, it’s a perfect place.”

“There’s nothing off of this road.” Michael grumbled as the sidewalk turned into rocks and gravel. He held hisarms out by his sides to keep his balance while Luke jumped down the small hill with ease. Ashton was taking his time down the steep hill, his arms out as well. “There’s everything off of this road.” Luke replied, waving at them to hurry up.

“You’re not crazy, are you?” Michael began. "I forgot to ask that when we first met. Are you taking us out to murder us?" Luke shook his head as he grabbed Ashton’s wrist, helping him down the rest of the way. Ashton tripped on a rock and flew forward, landing in Luke’s arms. Luke caught him and wrapped his arms around him.

Ashton’s heart was smashing his chest with a hammer. Luke’s skin was soft, and he was warm and his arms were protective and welcoming. Ashton looked up to see Luke looking down at him, his light blue eyes wide. Luke steadied Ashton and smiled. “Are you alright?” he asked as Michael slipped, sliding down the hill on his bum. Ashton nodded, feeling like an idiot because he knew he was blushing.

“Ow, _shit_. Thanks guys!” Michael called as he stood up and began to pat his bum. Ashton laughed at him before looking around to see they were standing in a field of dead grass, and there were birds here and there. Luke shook his head and waved his index finger at him. He suddenly burst off into a sprint, leaving Michael and Ashton to stare in surprise. They looked at each other and ran after him.

“You gotta keep up if you wanna see it! It’s a surprise!” Luke called behind him, Michael and Ashton running full speed to keep up with him. "This is it, Ash. He's luring us to our deaths." Michael said.

“We’re going to paradise!” Luke suddenly called.   
“What the hell are you talking about?” Michael asked.

“You’ll understand.” Luke stopped suddenly, his arms crossed over his chest, smiling. Michael and Ashton caught up seconds later, out of breath. “Wh--?” Michael gasped, placing a hand on his chest and the other on her knee. “Wha--?” Michael continued to pant. ‘What do you mean ‘paradise’?’ Ashton signed. Michael nodded and pointed at Ashton.

“Yeah---that---" he sputtered.

“I’d come here whenever the world was closing in on me.” Luke nodded. He had run like it was nothing. “You are just full of metaphors, aren’t you?” Michael taunted, standing up straight. He cleared his throat. Luke snorted.

“Are you ready?” Luke asked, scratching the back of his head. Ashton and Michael nodded simultaneously.  “So this hill is pretty steep, and it’s a long hill too. Be careful.”

“So it’s five-fifty -five pm now, and the sun sets at six. We’ve got plenty of time.” Luke grinned. ‘Plenty of time for what?’ Ashton signed before Luke started to walk down the large hill that they hadn’t seen before. Michael and Ashton began to follow.

“To live,” He replied quietly.  Michael rolled his eyes. "This guy," Michael panted under his breath.

“We’re not doing anything illegal are we?” Michael asked as he took Ashton’s hand into his to keep his balance. “You really think I’m crazy, don’t you?” Luke asked, looking behind him to look at Michael. He shrugged in reply. “I’ve known you for a while, I just never got to make you take the 'are you crazy' quiz. Also, what was up with the disappearance? You were at school Tuesday then you just stopped showing up.” Michael grabbed onto Ashton’s arm with both hands to keep himself from tumbling down the hill.

“Yeah, sorry about that, I uh…” Luke spoke slowly, his voice hoarse. “I had some family problems.” He continued after a long pause. And with that he stopped speaking.

Michael saw something in the distance and let out a laugh. He pointed ahead. “Is this where we’re heading?” he asked as Ashton looked around to see they were heading towards a meadow. There were all types of different flowers. There were Daisy’s, Sunflowers, Moondrops, Pansy’s and Black eyed Susan’s. Ashton was truly amazed.

"How come no one has come here before?” Michael asked, finally getting onto flat land again. “I guess no one really looks.”Luke replied as he bent down and picked up a Sunflower. He walked up to Ashton and handed it to him with a smile. "Do you still think I'm crazy?" Luke asked.

“Yes,” Michael sighed as he patted Ashton on the back. “This place is amazing, I have to admit. It’s, it’s…”

“Imperial.” Luke added. “This place has a perfect view of the sun when it sets and the full moon when it’s huge.”

'This place is amazing.' Ashton pulled out his cellphone, taking multiple picture of the meadow. “Yeah and it’s our place now,” Luke’s blue eyes connected with Ashton’s hazel ones as he spoke. “It’s for just the three of us. Four of us actually. Calum can come too.” Luke’s eyes twinkled.

Ashton had no idea why but he had butterflies in his stomach. His face had turned at least four different shades of red and his hands were shaking by his sides. Michael had dropped to the ground, making himself comfortable. Luke walked over to Ashton and faced the hill they had just climbed over. He sat down, taking Ashton’s hand and pulling him gently down with him. Michael came and sat beside Luke, still lying on his stomach. The sky was a light orange mixing with red and yellow. The sun was peeking above the hill shyly. The three watched as the sun slowly sunk into the hill while birds flew towards it.

"This it pretty cool." Michael sighed.

‘Thank you for bringing us here.’ Ashton signed. Luke nodded in reply. Luke leaned back, letting his head rest on his hands. Ashton leaned back as well with a wide grin on his face.


	4. Parties Are For Jocks

Ashton stepped into his house to see Calum running around, placing banners around the place. There were dozens of red plastic cups sitting on the kitchen counter. There was a large black stereo on a table beside the couch and on the glass coffee table were bottles of beer and rum.

Ashton clapped his hands to get his attention. Calum froze and looked up with a frown on his face. "I've come to my senses." Calum said, almost sounding too serious. "Maybe we should reconsider this party. " Michael shut the door behind him, clapping with a satisfied look on his face.

‘It’s seven o’clock.’ Ashton signed, walking past him and towards the fridge. He reached for an orange soda. ‘I don't think you have enough time to cancel.’ The soda opened with the usual sizzling sound. Ashton drank it quickly before stepping up the stairs and into his room.

Ashton placed the soda on his bed side table. He reached inside his pocket and pulled out his phone, plopping down on his bed. He realised that there was a new added contact and it read ‘Luke’. When did he get Luke’s number? Luke must have done it when Ashton wasn’t paying attention. Ashton clicked the contact and typed:

**TO** **LUKE** **:** Hi

He got a reply a few seconds later.

**FROM** **LUKE** : Looks like you saw I added myself as your contact.

**TO** **LUKE** **:** Yeah when did you do that?

**FROM** **LUKE** **:** When I caught you. I took your phone out of your pocket. Sorry that I didn’t ask.

**TO** **LUKE** **:** Nah, its fine.

**FROM** **LUKE** **:** So did you like the meadow? You didn’t say much or … you know what I mean.

**TO** **LUKE** **:** I liked it. It was nice and relaxing. Anything going on?

**FROM** **LUKE** **:** Nothing much. Doing make up work that I missed. What about you?

**TO** **LUKE** : Mike's throwing a party.

**FROM** **LUKE** **:** Yeah, I know he posted the invite everywhere. Are you gonna, party?

**TO** **LUKE** : Nah I hate crowds so I'm gonna stay in my room.

**FROM** **LUKE** :  You seem fine during school.

**TO** **LUKE** : That’s because you or my brothers are with me.

**FROM** **LUKE** **:** So you trust me?

Ashton heard Calum greeting people. There were dozens of footsteps and whooping as the silence left the house as a loud blast of music took its place. Ashton shivered at the noise. How many people did Michael invite? Ashton heard the front door open again and more people flooded in. This was a bad idea and Michael should know better. He’s letting hormonal teenagers drink. Who knows what they’ll do? The music got louder as the cheering and talking did as well.

**TO** **LUKE** :  There are a lot of people here.

**FROM** **LUKE** **:** Yeah, he posted the invite on Twitter. Do you need me to come over?

**TO** **LUKE** **:** No I’m fine.

**FROM** **LUKE** **:** Yeah I’m coming over.

Ashton stared at his phone, rereading the sentence. He had just told Luke that he didn’t need help, but he was coming over anyways.  Ashton set his phone beside him on his bed as he heard footsteps running up the stairs.

Suddenly, his door swung open. It was Josh. "Oh," he began. "Ashton, right?" Ashton nodded when Josh walked into his room, his two friends standing by the door. "I'm Josh." Ashton nodded again. "You can't speak, right?" Josh continued. Ashton nodded a third time. "Hm, I wonder what that must be like." Ashton shrugged, slowly becoming more uncomfortable by the minute. "You wouldn't happen to be friends with Luke, would you?" Ashton shook his head as Josh went over and sat on the bed. The boy scoffed. "I have a feeling you're lying. So would you mind telling your boyfriend something for me?"

Josh's sudden movement made Ashton gasp as he was punched in the cheek and dropped to the floor. The other two boys approached Ashton as well as they heard quick footsteps bolting up the stairs. Ashton felt warmth around his legs, and his face went pale. "He pissed himself!" one of the boys laughed, making the others laugh.

Imagine this; three very overprotective, teenage boys witnessing a vulnerable, disabled boy being beat up by some rich guy asshole. Luke, Michael and Calum were _fuming._ "What the _fuck_ do you think you're doing?!" Calum screeched as he stormed straight over to Josh himself. Ashton has never seen Calum so angry before. His face was red and his hands were balled into fists. Michael was standing between the other two guys while Luke hurried over to Ashton. "Are you okay?" Luke whispered. Ashton nodded quickly, hiding his bruised cheek with his hand as he crossed his legs. "Did he hit you?" Luke asked. Ashton shook his head, biting his lip. Luke grabbed Ashton's wrist, moving it from his cheek. "Ashton!" Luke gasped as Michael glanced at his younger brother, his eyes widening when he saw the bruise. 'It's nothing!' Ashton signed quickly when he could see Michael getting angrier by the second. "Oh, no, Ashton." Luke said slowly when he saw Ashton had peed himself. Ashton shook his head, hiding his face in his hands.

"You have ten seconds to get out of my house before I break both of your arms." Michael growled at Josh. Without hesitation, Josh and his friends bolted out the bedroom. Seconds later the house door could be heard opening and closing. Calum was still fuming, and he left the room angrily, yelling, "The party is over!"

Michael walked towards Ashton, bending over to examine him. He sat down beside him, Ashton holding his head in his hands. "What happened?" Michael demanded.

'Nothing.' Ashton signed as he tried to hold back tears. "Did he do anything else to you?" Ashton shook his head. Michael grabbed him and hugged him tightly. That's when Ashton started crying. He sobbed into Michael's shoulder as Luke ran a hand through his hair, messing with his lip ring. "Let's get you cleaned up." Michael lifted up Ashton with ease, carrying him into the bathroom.

 ♪

“I cannot believe you!” Their mother was furious as she stomped into the house while Harry carried in the suitcases.  It was ten o’clock in the morning and last night Ashton had fallen asleep on the floor, Luke beside him. Now, Luke, Calum and Ashton were standing close beside Michael in front of their raging mother. “What the hell did you think you were doing?!” their mother screeched. “You threw a party?! YOU KNOW BETTER! AND YOU WERE LETTING THEM DRINK?! DID YOU EVEN ONCE THINK ABOUT ASHTON?”

"I know, I-I wasn't thinking. I messed up." Michael said quietly.

"Oh, I can tell that you messed up. What's been going on with you, Michael? Dying your hair, throwing parties without my permission, being so careless."

 "You're never home." Michael mumbled under his breath. "What?" His mother stared at him. "All you do is make us breakfast everyday then go to work. You don't get home until three, you never spend time with us. I'm the only one taking care of this family." Their mother hesitated before she raised her hand and slapped Michael. Everyone yelled as Michael took several steps back, his hand over his now red cheek.

Everyone went silent as they all began to process what happened. Michael glared at the woman as he walked over to Ashton. "I'm sorry." Michael whispered as he turned and went upstairs to his room. "Why would you do that?" Calum asked in disbelief as he took a few steps away from his mother, who had clapped her hands over her mouth as she began to cry. "I don't- I'm sorry." she began. Calum shook his head as he and Harry followed Michael up the stairs.

Ashton was gripping Luke’s arm tightly, trying to keep himself from crying while his mother walked out the door, got in her car and drove away. 'Michael didn't deserve that.' Ashton signed. 'It's my fault.' “Ashton, don't say that.” Luke began.  “It's not your fault." He turned Ashton to pull him into a tight hug. Ashton lost it. He was sobbing uncontrollably now and it was much worse than the night before. Ashton’s fingers were locked onto the back of Luke’s shirt while the memory of his mother slapping Michael kept replaying in his head. Luke ran his fingers through Ashton’s hair, doing his best to calm him. Ashton had cried to the point to where he was gasping for air, hiccupping and coughing. Luke sat him down on the couch and Luke sat beside Ashton.

After several minutes of Calum and Michael yelling, Ashton fell asleep with his head on Luke’s shoulder. Ashton’s face was a bright red, his cheek bruised from where he had been punched. It looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks.

♪

Ashton woke up to have his left cheek stinging. His eyes shot open and he raised his head. Luke was resting his head on his hand that was resting on the arm of the couch. He was asleep. Ashton stared at him. He looked at his fluffy blond hair and his tanned skin. He looked at his closed eyes, staring at them in awe. He seemed so peaceful.  Ashton rubbed his bruised cheek gently as he stood up and walked into the kitchen. He grabbed an icepack and pressed it onto his cheek, first wincing then sighing. Ashton heard a loud yawn, making him jump. He heard the couch springs  adjust as Luke stood up, stretching.

“Hey,” Luke drowsed, running a hand through his now messy hair. Luke lazily padded towards Ashton. “How’re you feeling?”

‘Fine,’ Ashton signed, looking up at him. Ashton looked away for a split second, snapping his head back up to look at Luke in the eyes. _The hell?_ His blue eyes were, _bluer_ if that's possible. Ashton looked away, biting his lip.  ‘Why wouldn’t I be fine?’ Ashton finally signed. Luke tilted his head and shrugged, straightening himself back up. “Did you have a nice nap then?” he asked as he reached for the icepack to look at Ashton’s cheek. “I mean, after all that’s happened?”

‘It looked like you had a better nap than me.’ Ashton shooed Luke’s hand away from the icepack, gripping it even tighter.

There was a long silence. Ashton stared at the floor while Luke stared at him.

“Ashton,” Luke whispered, his voice quiet. The softness of Luke’s voice made chills dance up Ashton’s spine. Ashton shook his head before signing, ‘I said I’m fine. I really am. Just don’t worry about me, okay? It’s annoying.’

“What, people caring about you is annoying?” Luke tilted his head again, his hands behind his back.

‘Yes, I can take care of myself. They should be worrying about themselves.’

“Right, because you have everything under control.” Luke mumbled. Ashton looked up at him.   “But you're not getting rid of me.” Luke added with a grin. Ashton shook his head, taking the icepack from his face and putting it back in the freezer. Luke tilted his head even more now. ‘Stop it!’ Ashton signed as he glared at Luke.

“Stop what?” Luke looked a little taken aback.  
'That stupid head tilting thing you’re doing!’

“Is it bothering you?” Luke voice was quieter as if he had done something wrong. Ashton stared at him and scratched his left arm. ‘No, but it’s...’ _…_ _It’s_ _cute_. Ashton thought. He shook his head. ‘Just stop it. It’s annoying..’

“It seems a lot of things I do are annoying.” Ashton shrugged before looking around the living room.

'Is my mum back yet?' Ashton asked, pacing in the living room. Luke sat back on the couch with a sigh. "No, not yet." Luke replied. 'What about Michael?'

"Still in his room." Ashton nodded.

‘Luke,’ Ashton began, scratching his head. ‘Thank you.’ Ashton stood in front of the older boy. “Why’re you thanking me?”

‘You helped me a lot last night. Who knows what would have happened if you didn’t get here.’

“You said you didn’t need help so I came.”

‘What?’

“You told me you didn’t like crowds. The party was an open invite so there were going to be more than crowds, there were going to be hordes. Plus they were drinking. I simply added the situation up.  Disaster was bound to happen.”

‘So the next time I say that I’m fine you’re going to come over?’

“I don’t know. It depends.”

‘It depends on what?’

“If you really mean it.”   Luke shrugged. “For example, you told me you’re fine just a few minutes ago in the kitchen. The entire time you didn’t look me in the eyes. Plus you scratched your arm. It seems like people only do that when they’re nervous. When are most people nervous? When they’re lying to someone they trust.” Ashton stared at him, dumbstruck.

“So I guess you answered my question.”

‘What question?’ Ashton signed.

“I asked you if you trusted me last night.”

‘I guess I do trust you then, based off of your theory.’ Luke smirked when he saw Ashton was looking him in the eyes. Luke laughed. "Okay, I'm not entirely sure that theory's true. I was trying to sound smart."  Ashton grinned.

Ashton looked down at his feet after a long pause then looked back up at Luke. “What do you remember?” Luke asked as Ashton walked towards him. Ashton shrugged.

‘I remember getting punched and thrown to the floor. I guess I zoned out after that. I don’t remember anything until Michael started yelling at Josh and they left. Michael stayed a while and then he was gone too. You left too.'

Luke looked a little surprised. “That’s all you remember?”

‘I zone out when I’m upset.’ Ashton shrugged. “Ashton, I didn’t leave. You fell asleep in my arms after you got out the shower and stuff. That’s why I was here this morning. You don’t remember waking up?”

‘Not really. I thought you were a pillow or something since you’re so soft.’ Ashton froze as he blushed, shaking his head. He looked at Luke to see his mouth was open a little and it looked like he was blushing a little as well. _Oh my God,_ Ashton placed his hands on his cheeks trying to hide the blush as his eyes grew wide. _I’m such an idiot!_ Ashton turned around and began to pace again. ‘Sorry,’ he signed. Luke laughed. “Don't apologize. It was a compliment, I think.” Luke scratched the back of his head.

They turned to look at the door when they heard the lock turning. Seconds later, Ashton’s mother stepped inside the house. She nodded at them, making her way to Luke. "Thank you, for taking care of Ashton." she said.

“He’s my friend. Friends take care of each other, right?” Ashton looked up at Luke, a little shocked. Ashton didn't have  _any_ friends.  Ashton’s mother nodded before turning and padding up the stairs. “I should get going. See you tomorrow at school.” Luke hugged Ashton goodbye before leaving out the front door.

♪

This _cannot_ be happening. Ashton thought, pulling his hair as he stumbled through the hallways. Michael had gotten "sick" and Calum was taking care of him. On top of that, Luke was helping a teacher, leaving Ashton in the halls surrounded by crowds. There were far too many people and they were all just too close. Why did these strange, hormonal teenagers have to travel in small packs based off of their popularity or their intelligence? Why did every group, gang, team, frat, have to spend the four minutes they had to get to class all in the same damn hallway?  If someone were to fall, no one would help them up, because no one would notice. No one would _care_ in fact. And that’s what Ashton’s afraid of. He’s afraid he’ll trip over someone and go limp on the floor, unable to pick himself back up because he could barely control his body right now, _hell,_ he couldn’t even control his breathing.

Ashton found himself in someones arms and glanced up to see it was Luke. _God damn it._ Ashton was still terrified even though Luke was there. He was going to pass out if he couldn’t get his breathing under control, and out of all the panic attacks he’s had the part where he passed out was the scariest, hands down. He cried even harder when he realised that Michael and Calum weren't there to comfort him, and chances were Luke's never dealt with a panic attack before. He closed his eyes, because he was too scared to keep them open as Luke carried him out the hall.

He heard the gym doors open, quickly followed by a loud slam. Luckily there was no one in the gym, and it was just Luke and Ashton. Ashton squeezed his eyes shut tighter as his breaths became shorter. He felt Luke lift his chin up, saying some things that Ashton couldn't hear. "Come on Ashton, open your eyes and look at me." Luke said, but Ashton just cried louder. It felt like he was drowning and it was horrible.

He heard Luke's voice crack multiple times, followed by a panicked release of breath. It almost sounded like he was crying, and Ashton was _so_ sorry because the last person he wanted to see crying was Luke. Suddenly,  Ashton felt warm, strong arms grab his arms. So he screamed louder.  His back was being pulled against Luke’s chest, and he felt Luke's legs beside his and Ashton just cried and carried on.He felt Luke’s right hand moving up his arm and Ashton felt Luke slowly intertwining his fingers with his.

Ashton's heart began to beat normal again, but he continued to cry softly as he turned his head and rested it on Luke’s chest. Ashton’s breathing was slowly steading as he cried into Luke’s shirt. A few seconds later, he felt Luke’s chin on the top of his head, and he was whispering softly as he stroked Ashton’s back. Luke squeezed his hand and Ashton squeezed back as he fell asleep in Luke’s arms.

**A/N: Ugh! It's a sad chapter uhhhh :( poor Michael but hey a little Lashton going on!**


	5. November 20th

_"He's had a really bad week." Ashton recognised Luke's deep voice. "Can you just let me take him home?"_   
_"I'm sorry but only a parent or guardian can take him." the nurse replied._   
_"Alright,  then don't call his mum. Let me call his brothers."_   
_"The bruise on his cheek, how did he get that?" the nurse asked. Luke hesitated, then replied, "We were at a party."_

Ashton opened his eyes a bit, looking around the small room. _Great._ The nurse's office. Ashton was hoping Luke would avoid the nurse and just take him home. Luke's back was turned as he pressed the phone to his ear, biting his nails as it rang loudly. "Hey, Calum. Yeah,  Ashton's in the nurse's office and I need you to pick him up. Now's not the best time..." Luke looked around nervously, finally looking at Ashton,  seeing he was awake, he bit his lip. "Just get here, okay? And uh, you should bring Michael. Yeah, he had a panic attack. Okay, bye." Luke hung up,  sliding his phone in his pocket.

Ashton yawned, rubbing his eyes, shifting so he was lying on his back. "Hey," Luke sat on the end of the uncomfortable bed. Ashton waved weakly, not feeling like signing anything. "Are you okay?" Luke asked, running his fingers over his lip ring. Ashton nodded as he sat up, running a hand through his curly hair. "What happened back there? Was it Josh again?" Ashton didn't reply as he lay back down, pulling out his phone. "'Cause if it was Josh, I can take care of him for-" The sudden and quick _Shh!_   Ashton gave Luke took him by surprise and the boy went silent.

Ashton typed quickly on his phone, and after a while he handed it to Luke. Luke read over it, frowning. "Damn it," Luke sighed. "I'm sorry, I should've-ugh!" Luke placed his head in his hand. "I shouldn't have left you alone." Ashton shrugged. 'Don't worry about it.' Ashton finally signed. 'You had to help out the teacher. It's not your fault.' Luke nodded, and noticed Ashton had his phone up.

"What are you-?" the flash from the camera made Luke wince, and he covered his eyes. Ashton laughed, waving his hands apologetically. 'Flash is on.' he signed with a wide smile, showing his dimples. "Hey!" Luke laughed, pulling at his cheek gently. "There's that little smile. " After turning the flash off and taking another picture Ashton tried to stop himself from smiling, but he couldn't so he covered his face with his hands. Luke laughed,  then said, "Your brothers will be here any minute."

Ashton nodded as he got up and off the bed. He scratched the back of his neck as he put his phone away, glancing at Luke. 'Thank you.' Ashton smiled at the boy, and Luke nodded.

"Ashton, hey are you okay?" Calum ran into the room and hugged the boy. Ashton nodded as Michael entered the room. Calum took Ashton's phone, nudged Luke and took a quick picture with him. He tossed the phone into Ashton's lap.

'Hey-' Michael grabbed Ashton's hands to keep him from signing and wrapped his arms around him. Afterwards Michael let out a sigh, patting Ashton's shoulders. "Did your day suck as bad as mine?" Michael asked with a smile. Ashton nodded, standing up and stretching.

"Nurse, his brothers are here. Can we leave now?" Luke asked as the nurse came into the room. The nurse nodded. "Just sign him out." The boys nodded, ready to leave the school.

♪

"Oh my- MICHAEL!" Calum suddenly yelled, jumping up from where he stood in the center of the living room. "What?" Michael said from where he lay on the floor, half asleep.  Calum, Luke and Ashton were playing guitar hero, with Calum and Luke on guitar and Ashton on drums."Your birthday is in like, three days."

"It is?" Luke asked as he looked up from his phone. Ashton remembered, _November 2_ _0th._ Oops. He had forgotten... that's terrible.

"Yay." Michael mumbled, rolling onto his stomach after snatching a pillow from the couch and lying on it. "Play a song for me."

"What do you want for your birthday?" Calum asked as he sat beside Michael on the floor. "I want you to play a song for me." Michael yawned. That's when Calum sat on him, making Michael gasp.

"Ah! Fat ass!" Michael gasped, making Luke and Ashton laugh. "I don't think my ass is that fat." Calum glanced at his bum. Ashton went over and sat on Michael as well, Luke doing the same. "You're really heavy!" Michael tried to push them off but failed. "Why don't you play a song _with_ us, Mikey?" Luke suggested. Ashton slapped Michael's bum. "Play with us, Mikey!" Calum and Luke chanted as Michael let out a long, quiet sigh.

"Okay, okay, get up." the three boys stood up, going back to where they were before. "You're like children, I swear." Calum dug around behind the couch, pulling out shades of glasses. "Remember this, Mike?" Calum put them on and crossed his arms. "I'm punk rock!" He held up the rock on sign, sticking his tongue out. "Oh shut up," Michael laughed as he reached for a guitar for the game.

Ashton stood up, handing his phone to Michael. "You want me to take a picture?" Ashton nodded, taking his seat back behind the drums. "Well alright." Michael took the picture after everyone posed in someway, then handed the phone back to Ashton. "Okay, I played for you! Bye!" Michael took the guitar off and ran to his room. "Hey! You didn't-" Michael interuppted Calum. "You've got the picture as evidence!" Ashton laughed as Calum groaned, turning back to the TV screen and picking a song.

♪

"What are you getting Michael for his birthday?" Calum asked. Ashton shrugged, scratching the back of his head. 'I can't think of anything.' Ashton signed. Luke was lying on Ashton's bed, laid out like a starfish. "I've got an idea." Luke said, his voice muffled. "What is it?"

"Oh ha, I'm not telling you." Calum frowned, crossing his arms over his chest as he spun in the chair. "I think I'll give him food or hair dye or something." Calum began as he spun faster in the chair. "Food?" Luke repeated.

"Who doesn't like food?" Ashton shrugged from where he sat behind his drum set. He was sitting there, twisting the drumsticks in his hand.

♪

"Hey Michael," A voice said, making Ashton and Michael look up. Ashton was trying to go to sleep while Michael played on his computer. "Hey," he mumbled, turning back to the bright screen when he realised it was his mum. "I really want to apologise for-" Michael shook his head, running his hand through his now completely brown hair. "It's okay." Michael said. Their mother looked unsure, but Michael stood up and hugged her. "It's okay, really." Michael smiled, making Ashton and their mother smile as well. She turned and left after waving at Ashton.

'So are you going to keep dying your hair every other day to prove a point?' Ashton signed. Michael shrugged as he sat back down at the computer. "Yep."

♪

It was four in the morning and all Ashton could hear was a quick, _"Oh my fucking God!"_ and Ashton rolled over, glaring st his closed door, because he _knew_ Michael found one of their presents.  Michael was so impatient! Yeah it was his birthday, but opening the presents at four o'clock in the morning? He couldn't wait till noon or something?

So Ashton literally rolled off of the bed, hitting the floor with the loudest thud a person can make, and basically crawled on all fours out of his room and into Michael's. Calum was already in there, a blanket half draped over to him as he rested his head on the door frame. Luke was sitting on the floor, resting his head on the mattress as Michael waved four thin slips of paper in his hand.

"Look!" Michael said, shaking his hands.   
"What's that?" Calum yawned.  
"Four tickets to America!" Luke laughed at how fast Calum perked up. 'Who got them?' Ashton signed sloppily.   
"Our little Lukeypoo." Michael said with a grin, patting the blond on the head. Luke smiled, looking up at Ashton,  then at Calum. "We're going to Hollywood."  
"Ha! Fuck that! The fact that we're going to America!" Michael laughed.  
"AMURICA!" Calum screamed, making all the boys laugh.


	6. Airplanes

" _Michael waK_ E THE FUCK UP!" Calum slapped the boy on the stomach, making him jump up. "What?" Michael growled. "You overslept dude. The flight leaves in two hours and you still haven't packed yet."

"Pack for me." Michael rolled over onto his stomach, getting comfortable again. "You do it! Michael,  we don't have time."

"It's my birthday."

"Your birthday was yesterday."

"It's my birthday present." Calum groaned. "Do you want me to get Luke in here?" Calum asked, crossing his arms over his chest. Michael sighed, getting up, stretching.

♪

"Mum, drive faster." Michael said.

"Do you see the car in front of me?" His mother pointed at the small car in front of them. "Go around them!"

"It's traffic! No one can go around anyone. We have to wait."

"God Michael,  you must be a horrible driver." Luke said quietly.

"Boarding is in forty minutes." Calum mumbled from the front seat,  laying back. 'We'll make it.' Ashton signed.

"You guys should've woken me up earlier." Michael sighed. Luke and Calum were suddenly yelling, saying, "Nope, don't start!" and Michael threw up his hands in defense and said, "Damn, you guys are feisty in the morning." Michael turned to glance at Ashton who was sitting in the middle. "I'm glad you're nice to me, Ash." Ashton looked up, pulling the ear buds from his ears. 'What?' he signed, making everyone but Michael laughed. "Alright, prick, I see how it is."

'What did I do?' Ashton looked at Luke in confusion, only getting a short laugh in return.

The rest of the ride was filled with the boys rambling on and Ashton taking multiple pictures. At one point their mum suggested singing a song, and Michael had screamed "No!" so loud that Ashton heard it even though his music was obnoxiously loud, the people in the car beside them looked at them and Calum and Luke were in hysterics.

When they got to the airport, Calum threw his arms over Michael and Luke's shoulders while their mum and Ashton carried the suitcases. " _We're in the airport, we're in the airport!!!"_ Calum sang, making people give them strange looks. Michael rolled his eyes, trying to keep himself from laughing.

After going through all kinds of security,  they got to the boarding area with at least five minutes to spare.

"It's gonna be a long flight, boys." Ashton's mum said as she patted them on the back. "I packed snacks." she whispered to Michael,  making him grin. The intercom rang and said that they would stop boarding in five minutes, and the plane would leave in about fifteen. "We better go." Calum said, hugging the woman.

"Ay, group hug!" Michael said, bringing Luke and Ashton into the hug. Their mother laughed before saying, "Come on! You're supposed to be going." They nodded and disappeared onto the plane minutes later.

♪

"This'll be fun," Michael laughed, taking out his music. "How longs the ride?"  
"Fourteen hours." Luke yawned, scratching the back of his head. Michael looked at him, and frowned. "Are you telling me that this plane ride is as long as two days of school?"  
"Basically."  
" _Oh fuck."_ Michael dug into his bag. "Mum should've packed more snacks."

Ashton tapped Luke's shoulder from behind them, making Luke turn back and look at Calum and Ashton in the two seats behind them. "Hmm?" Ashton held up his phone, then pointed at the four of them. "Oh, okay." Luke took the phone from the curly haired boy, took a couple pictures of the four of them and handed it back to him. 

♪

Ashton realised that Michael had fallen asleep within the first hour, Calum had fallen asleep at least thirty minutes after him and now Luke was drifting off. Ashton tapped Luke's shoulder, and the boy looked back at him. Ashton tried to sign but Luke shook his head. "I can't keep looking back there, Ash." he sighed and patted his lap. "Come up here." Ashton hesitated,  then got up. 'I don't think that's allowed.' Ashton signed as he stood in the empty aisle. "Come on, all the stewards are with the captain so, don't worry about it."

Ashton went over and sat on Luke's lap, accidentally elbowing Michael in the forehead. A quiet, _"fucker..."_ passed his lips as he turned his head in the other direction. Luke laughed quietly,  rubbing his eyes. "What do you need, Ash?" Ashton shrugged,  picking at his finger nails. 'How did you afford our tickets? Mum says it's a lot of money to get a ticket out of the country, let alone four tickets." Luke shrugged,  running his fingers across his lip ring. "I was saving up a ton of money anyways."

'Is it from drugs?' Ashton signed,  looking Luke in the eye. Luke laughed quietly, shaking his head. "No, it's not from drugs. My mum lent me some money." Ashton nodded, adjusting himself so he could rest his head on Luke's shoulder. 'We are so gonna get in trouble for this.' he signed with a laugh. Luke messed with Ashton's hair for a while, and Ashton didn't notice when Luke fell asleep until a little turbulence made Ashton jump up and look around.

He carefully went back to his seat and looked out the window. Just watching the clouds pass by made him tired, so he curled onto his side and got comfortable.


	7. The Drunk Confessions Of Spider-Man

**Okay guys, I apologize beforehand for this chapter :D oops.**

"We're here." Luke said with a loud yawn. Calum woke Ashton up, while Luke _tried_ to wake up Michael. "Wake up,  we're here." Luke said, nudging the boy. "Shhhhhh..." Michael slid his index finger down his lips. "Ten more minutes."

"Come on, you can relax in the car." Luke grabbed Michael's arms and began to pull him up. Michael groaned,  standing up as Calum grabbed his backpack.

They waited impatiently for their luggage, and after they finally got it, they went to a rental car service and got a suburban. "Take me to McDonald's." Michael said from the back, resting his head on the window.

♪

"So, there'll be a party tonight." Calum said as he played with his laptop. "We're going!" Michael called from the bathroom. He came out with his toothbrush in his mouth, his jaw dropping. "Are there two rooms, Luke?" Luke looked up from where he sat on the bed. "No?"

"WHY IS THERE ONLY ONE BED?!" Ashton looked around and shrugged. "I'm not sharing a bed with you guys." Michael said as he went back to the bathroom. "Then sleep on the couch." Calum suggested as he grabbed the suitcase.

"That is _not_ a couch." Michael mumbled.

"Then sleep on the floor." Luke yawned. Michael glared at him, wiping his mouth.  Michael sighed,  then turned to Calum.

"When's the party start?"

"In an hour."

"Yeah! We're gonna get drunk!" Michael said, throwing his hands in the air. "No we're not." Luke piped up.

"Why not?" Michael looked at him.

"None of us are twenty-one."

"The legal drinking age is eighteen." Michael replied. "It's twenty-one in America." Calum mumbled.  Michael looked at both of them, then screamed, "Son of a whore!"

♪

"You don't have to come if you don't want to." Luke said as they all began to unpack. Ashton shrugged, looking at Michael to see he was singing happy birthday to himself with his shirt above his head. _He's not even drunk yet._ 'It's his birthday. I want to go.' Ashton signed as Calum burst into hysterics, trying to sing along with Michael in between laughs. "You sure?" Luke said. "I don't want you getting hurt. Plus things are different here. We don't really know any one." Ashton shrugged, pulling the blue pug shirt from his suitcase.

"Hey!" Calum called from where he sat in the chair in the corner. "You kept the shirt I gave you for your birthday." Calum pulled out his phone as he laughed. "Yeah that stupid little pug shirt." Michael mumbled as he fixed his own shirt, showing his face was red from all the blind singing.  'It's not stupid.' Ashton said with a grin, holding the shirt out so he could get a Bette look. 'I like it.'

"Wear it to the party." Calum suggested. Ashton nodded, taking off his hoodie and undershirt and replaced it with the blue pug shirt. Ashton missed it when Luke stopped what he was doing to look at chest, but he caught a glimpse of Luke's eyes darting away as he took out his cell phone.

"Ayyyy," Calum said as he held up his own phone, taking a few pictures. He turned to look at Ashton and laughed. "What is that _face?"_ Calum asked. In the picture, Ashton's mouth was wide open as he made some sort of horrified face. 'That's my face.' Ashton said, slapping his cheeks lightly. "Cal, that face was adorable." Luke defended as he pushed the empty suitcase under the bed. "I think we have different terms for adorable." Calum mumbled.

♪

When it was time to leave, Michael desperately wanted to drive because _it was his birthday._ The boys reluctantly agreed, but when they got outside, Michael looked like he was about to puke. "What the fuck?" Michael began. "What?" Luke looked up, opening the door and letting Ashton in the back seat. "The wheel is on the wrong side!"

"Actually, to the people here, the wheel in Australia is on the wrong side. Nothings too different." Michael shook his head.

"I can't even look at this." Michael tossed the keys to Calum, going over to the passenger seat and sitting down without a word. 'So picky.' Ashton signed in front of Luke, making him chuckle.

The club house they went to was crowded, loud, dubstep music blasting through the speakers. Colourful lights flashed everywhere, and no one even bothered to ask for an ID. There was a long thing table in the far corner where some people sat in spinning chairs, taking one shot after another. "Yay." was all Michael said be for they split up.

Ashton immediately clinged to Luke's arm because he didn't trust this at all. Calum gave him a reassuring look before disappearing in the crowd after Michael,  and Ashton looked up at Luke hopefully.

"Don't worry." Luke said, wrapping his arm around Ashton's waist. "I won't go anywhere." Ashton nodded, looking around to see the first place Michael and Calum had gone was to the bar. Calum was chatting up a storm with some girl, and Michael was pointing at the different types of alcohol behind the bartender, probably asking what they were. Michael usually just stuck to beer, but whatever.

"We haven't even been here five minutes and your brother..." Luke pointed at Calum. "...Has already gotten some girls number." Ashton laughed, dragging Luke over. The girl Calum was talking to had hair almost as green as Michael's had once been. She had a small tattoo of a butterfly on her neck, and a wide grin was plastered on her face as Calum spoke, doing his best to make his accent noticeable.

"So, where you from?" she asked. Calum shrugged, leaning against the bar table. "A little bit of everywhere, actually. Australia, mostly." the girl faked a swoon, and both Ashton and Luke rolled their eyes. Michael literally slid over, bumping into Ashton's shoulder. "He's a fruit." Michael said, pointing at Calum, and with that he turned away and disappeared in the crowd. Ashton held back a laugh as Luke grinned, casually covering his mouth with his hand.

They stood there a while, listening to Calum and the girl ramble on and the loud blaring music. At least an hour pasted and Calum was a little tipsy. Luke was surprised when he saw Ashton take a couple drinks as well, and now he was sitting in a chair, signing things that made no sense whatsoever.  "Where's Mikey?" Calum yawned, taking a quick shot. Luke looked around, biting his lip. He hoped he was still on the dance floor, not somewhere off getting an STD. "Calum,  _watch Ashton._ " Luke said sternly, and the Kiwi boy nodded, hitting his hands against the table.

Luke wandered off, looking for Michael's hair mostly. He actually wished Michael had dyed it a bright colour this time so he'd be easy to spot. Luke heard the boy singing obnoxiously followed by people cheering and whooping. He made his way through the crowd to see Michael sitting on the floor, singing along to the dubstep(if that was even possible)

"Hey, Mike, get up." Luke grabbed the older boys arm, pulling him away. "Luke... Skywalker." Michael mumbled, resting his head on Luke's shoulder. _Great. He was drunk._ "Have a drink, Luke."

"Someone needs to drive us home." Luke mumbled as he saw Calum still sitting at the bar. "Come on, grab Ash, we're leaving." Luke patted Calum on the shoulder and the boy groaned. "Don't be a party pooper." Luke sighed and turned to look where Ashton sat. He was out cold. "Son of a..." Luke sighed. "I'll be right back."

Luke grabbed Michael's arm, pulling him out the club and making him sit in the back seat. Michael resisted at first, requesting that he drive. "You can't drive when you're drunk, Mike." Luke explained, pushing the boy against the seat with one hand as he reached for the seatbelt with the other. "But I want to!" Michael sounded like he was crying. Luke rolled his eyes, almost putting the seatbelt on until Michael jumped up, banging his head on the roof of the car. "Ow," Michael clutched the back of his head, and Luke took the chance to buckle him up. Luke took a step back, holding his hands up. "Don't move Mike. I'll be right back."

Luke ran back into the club and grabbed Ashton, carrying him bridal style. In one swift move he grabbed Calum' s wrist and pulled him out the club. He put Ashton beside Michael,  and Calum was able to get himself in the front seat. It was like he was taking care of three toddlers; Michael was the hyper one that never seemed to quit unless he was eating, Calum was the one that had fun, but settled down almost immediately and Ashton... Ashton was the _literal_ silent one that could easily be taken cared of.

♪

Calum had fallen asleep during the car ride, and Luke, for some magical reason, trusted Michael to carry him into the hotel room. Luke was relieved when Michael didn't drop Calum, and they put Ashton on the couch and pulled out a few blankets and a pillow and rested Calum on the floor.

Now Michael,  Michael was restless. Luke, on the other hand was exhausted, and it was two in the bloody morning. Michael rambled on as he and Luke laid in the bed, and Luke would always reply to what Michael said with a quick and quiet, "Mhm." or "Yep"

"I'm so tired, Luke." Michael drowsed, rubbing his eyes. The affects of the alcohol were obviously wearing off, and Luke just wanted to roll over and sleep, but he couldn't risk Michael doing anything stupid. "Go to sleep then." Luke mumbled,  running a hand through his hair. "B-but I've got something really important to tell you." Michael yawned. Luke nodded, waiting for what Michael had to say.

"I-I-Fuck..." Michael whined. "I forgot." Luke laughed quietly,  turning his head to glance at Michael. "You're so drunk." Luke grinned. "I'm so drunk." Michael repeated with a yawn. "But, I'm also... I'm also Spider-Man, okay? Luke, I'm Spider-Man."  
"Okay, Mike, you're Spider-Man."  
"I think I did a pretty good job saving some people today." Michael rolled over onto his side, coming close to Luke's face.

Luke shifted a little, biting his lip. "It sucks." Michael yawned.   
"What sucks?" Luke asked.  
"That Ash can't talk. I grew up learning sign language. Kids thought I was weird cause of Ash, even I thought I was weird... cause of Ash. " Michael laughed a bit, narrowing his eyes. "I'm such an asshole."  
"What do you-?" Michael leaned up and kissed Luke, taking the blue eyed boy by surprise. Luke did nothing a first, but ended up kissing him back.   
Michael stopped kissing him, rolling onto his back with a sigh. "I'm an asshole." Michael mumbled as he drifted off, facing away from Luke. Luke sat up, looking at the now sleeping boy.

**A/N:** **Oops.**


	8. It's Not Me, It's You

"Luke, my head hurts!" Calum called from the bathroom. Luke rubbed his temples gingerly, mumbling a quiet, "Mine does too."  Ashton was sitting on Luke's lap, playing with his phone. Michael was sitting in the bathtub, fully clothed as the shower water pelted him. Ashton didn't seem to be hungover at all. Ashton took a picture or two and turned to look at Luke.

'You didn't drink that much.' Ashton signed as Luke frowned. "Yeah, but it was a mess taking care of all three of you." Luke sighed. Ashton grinned, obviously embarrassed. "You're the most relaxed drunk ever." Luke added, making Ashton giggle. Michael came out of the bathroom,  drenched. "What are you doing?" Luke hissed, adjusting to where Ashton got up and slowly walked towards the bed. "You're gonna make a mess." Michael glared at him, patting his now completely black hair. "Who pissed in your cornflakes?" Michael mumbled.

"What sense did that make, sitting in the tub and drenching your clothes?"

'The water will dry, Luke.' Ashton signed shyly, trying his best to keep an argument from rising.

Calum had stepped out the bathroom, standing behind Michael quietly. "Yeah, listen to Ash, it'll dry." Calum whispered. Michael went over to his pile of clothes,  pulling out a new set. There was a dense silence in the small hotel room now, and Calum made his way over to Luke. "What's wrong?" Calum asked quietly. Luke shook his head. "I just didn't sleep too well, that's all."

"Yeah, none of us did." Michael whispered. Ashton shrugged. 'I slept like a baby.' Luke laughed quietly as Michael glared at Ashton playfully, ruffling Ashton's hair.

♪

"Where are we going today?" Calum asked as he ate Michael's bag of crisps left over, ignoring Michael's loud protests. "Just drive around, actually." Luke said as Ashton perked up.  'We can take a bunch of pictures!' Ashton signed happily, trying to hide his excitement. "Aw, he's so cute." Calum pulled at Ashton's cheeks, making him swat the boys hand away.

They did just drive around Hollywood,  stopping at random places taking the dumbest of pictures and Michael just wanted to _eat food_ so whenever there was food nearby, Mike would grab a handful of money and order any kind of food.

Calum had been the one to notice the tension between Michael and Luke, but it seemed like Luke was the one sending off the bad vibes and Mike was just mad at Luke in general. Calum wanted to ask what was wrong, but being nosey wasn't part of his nature.

_Nevermind._

"Luke, can I talk to you for a sec?" Calum said as Ashton watched Michael munch on some nachos. Luke nodded, following Calum to the far corner. "What's wrong?" Calum asked. "What's _really_ wrong?" Luke stared at him for a couple seconds, then shrugged. "Just know I can tell when you're lying." Calum mumbled. "And I'm not going anywhere until you tell me why you're so mad at Michael. Did something happen last night?" Luke bit his lip, looking down at his feet.

"You have to promise you won't tell anyone, that you won't tell _Ashton._ " Luke said as Calum looked behind him as Ashton laughed at Michael. "I promise." Calum replied. Luke nodded, hesitant at first. "Last night, Michael was really drunk and..." Luke trailed off and took a deep breath. "He kissed me."

"He what?!"Calum whisper yelled, glancing at his two brothers. "I-I mean I don't think he remembers it, and I _don't want to_ be mad at him 'cause... it's not his fault and-"

"Mike's not gay." Calum interuppted. Luke ran his fingers over his lip ring, shaking his head. "How certain are you about that?" Luke whispered.

And Calum glared at him. Right now he was trying _so_ hard to be angry at Luke, to tell him off and make him stay away from them for a while, but Calum couldn't. He couldn't do that because he wasn't mad at Luke. He wasn't offended, or angry, or upset in anyway even though he _really_ wanted to be. He wanted to do the cliché thing and say _"who gave you the right?"_ but that wouldn't make sense, would it? Who would give Calum the right to get angry at Luke for something Michael did?

So Calum just stared at Luke, who stared back at him nervously. "There's nothing wrong with Michael." Calum mumbled. Luke nodded. "I never said there was. It's just... I don't want him to think that... I'm trying for someone else." Luke mumbled.  Calum sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Okay, we'll fix whatever this is." and with that Calum walked away, taking a seat beside Michael as Luke stood in the corner, frowning.

**A/N: Am I sorry? No, not really.  Ha! Okay, oops again.~Blue**


	9. Sex, Drugs, And A Little Rain

Maybe it was just Luke being paranoid, but he was pretty sure Michael, Calum _and_ Ashton were giving him the death glare every time they looked at him. Calum had kept his word and said nothing about Luke and Michael, and Luke was thankful for that, but he didn't quite understand why Ashton was mad too.

Luke hated wrongly timed arguments. They were on vacation, supposed to be having a good time, not be at each others throats 99% of the time. Luke came out to have a good time and he's honestly feeling so attacked right now. **(I'm not sorry)**

When they get back to the hotel room, Calum immediately locks himself in the bathroom, claiming he had to wee while Ashton sat awkwardly on the bed, pretending to text someone, even though Michael and Luke both knew he had no one to text.

"Did I do something wrong?" Michael asked quietly, not looking up at Luke. Luke shrugged, fidgeting with his fingers. "No..." Luke said slowly.

"Then why are you mad at me? I must've done something to piss you off." Ashton shifted awkwardly, biting his lip. Luke shook his head, sitting in the chair in the corner. "It's nothing."

"Now's your chance to fix it." Calum said from where he leaned against the bathroom door. _"Fix it._ " the boy said sternly. Luke glared at him, making Ashton perk up. 'Fix what?' Ashton signed, only to be ignored.

Luke shifted uncomfortably. He specifically wanted to keep Ashton from knowing about the kiss. It was a mistake. Michael was drunk. Nothing happened. So when someones cellphone began to ring obnoxiously, Luke let out a sigh of relief because for the moment it looked like he was off the hook.

Everyone glanced at their phones, turning to Ashton when they realised that _his_ phone was ringing. Michael snatched the phone mumbling, "Who the hell would be calling you?" So he answers, preparing to cuss however was trying to prank Ashton until a mans voice says, "Hello, is this Ashton Irwin?" And Michael hesitates for a second, glancing at Calum.

"Who's this?" Michael demands, sitting on the bed. "Ashton?" the man guesses, some sort of a relieved tone to his voice.

"No, Michael." Michael says slowly, messing with his hair as Luke and Calum sit beside him.

"Oh," the man sounds a little disappointed, but a little frustrated too."Who is this?" Michael says again as Ashton tries his best to hear the other person on the line. There's a few noises in the background, like a police siren and the sound of someone moving around. "I'm uh-" a long silence. "I'm Ashton's father." And Michael freezes, because that was _impossible_.

Ashton's father was gone, just like Michael's father and Calum's father. Ashton's father left when he couldn't " _handle the pressur_ e _of having a disabled child_ "and he never showed up again. Ran off with some street whore that he found on fifth avenue.The man has been out of Ashton's life for just about fifteen years, and Michael and Calum keep the man out of their minds, because they're not supposed to give a flying shit about the bastard. They've never even met the guy, let alone found out his name.

"I swear to God, if this is some sort of sick little joke-" Michael begins as the three other boys look up because the tone of Michael's voice showed he wasn't playing around, and he was pissed. Ashton was just a tad bit worried about the guy on the other line because Michael's face is red, and his knuckles are turning white around the Iphone gripped in his hand. "I assure you, I'm not joking. I have a son named Ashton Fletcher Irwin, he should be seventeen by now and he's... he can't speak."

"Well, if you knew he couldn't speak, why would you call?" Calum was trying to take the phone from Michael when he realised who must've been on the other line. "I was hoping some miracle happened while I was gone. That he'd be able to speak by now."

"Well no thanks to you..." Michael began as Calum continued to try to grab the phone.

"Excuse me? Who are you?" The man says with a certain tone to his voice that makes Michael want to punch someone. "I'm Ashton's brother. Michael." That's when Ashton realised who it was too, and now _he_ was trying to snatch the phone from his brother. Michael got up, going to the corner even though the boys followed him.

The man scoffs on the other line, and Luke, Calum and Ashton can hear the conversation perfectly now. "You're one of the boys my wife adopted, huh?"

"Last time I checked she's not your wife. You left her for some slut you found half high and half naked in an alley behind a bar."

"You shouldn't be talking, because you know _exactly_ what that's like, don't you?" Michael froze, looking at the three boys around him because they had heard the man too.

Michael was taking deep breaths now, looking for a way to respond without screaming.He hangs up the phone, throwing it against the wall and Luke and Calum yell as the boy storms out the room, slamming the door behind him.

The boys stand in silence for a second, processing what happened. 'It was my dad.' Ashton signs, shaking his head. Calum leaned against the wall, letting out a quick sigh as he looked down at his feet. "He went too far." Calum mumbled. "How did he even know-?" Calum trailed off, playing with the him of his shirt. "Ashton, your dad's an asshole." Luke mumbles. He walks out the room to go look for Michael.

♪

Luke finds Michael sitting in a dark alley, his eyes closed shut as he looks up at the sky as raindrops pelt his face. Both of the boys were drenched, but Luke didn't seem to care as he sat on the ground and slid next to the boy quietly. They sat in silence, and Luke couldn't tell whether Michael was actually asleep or not, so he said nothing.

"Thanks." Michael eventually says, not opening his eyes. Luke looks up, staring at the black haired boy. "For being here, for all of us." There's a sort of hum to Michael's voice whenever he finishes a sentence, as if he's scared of the words he says. Luke shrugged even though Michael didn't see him. "You shouldn't listen to that guy. He just popped out of nowhere. He's not involved in your life."

"But he's involved in Ashton's." Michael mumbles a little too quietly to where Luke can barely hear him. "He's nothing to Ashton. Just a gene donor." Michael moves his head a little to keep water from dripping into his eyes.

His face was flushed, so Luke's certain he had been crying. "You can ask." Michael suddenly says, finally opening his eyes, but still not looking at Luke. "I know you want to ask, so go ahead." Luke hesitates, nipping at his lip ring. "When he said that you know what it's like to be half naked and high in an alley, what did he mean?" And Luke knew the answer, and he was pretty sure Michael knew that Luke knew too. Michael shifts a little, rubbing his eyes with the heels on his hands.

"Fourteen years old, right? Not that much of a perfect family. Crazy mum and a sex addicted dad. Only child shit. One day, come home, turns out my parents found out I was gay." Michael shrugs, laughing nervously. "Kick me out after that. They don't even lend me any money, or let me grab some of my clothes. So honestly after that, all I had was sex and drugs. Had sex to get money, did drugs to get away. I first got arrested when I was like, fifteen and they charged me with possession and shit and after doing a couple months of community service they sent me to a foster home. I'm there for a month or two where I meet Calum, and he was just a mess. Anxiety, depression, the whole nine yards." Michael checks to see if Luke is listening, and he's glad to see that he actually is.

"So one day, the foster caretaker, a real nice woman she was, says to me, ' _You've got a chance Michael. A mother is looking to adopt._ ' and to be honest, I looked that woman dead in the eye and said, _'Fuck it.'_ because Calum had been there three years or so and no one has even considered adopting him, plus he had no friends whatsoever so I was all he had. Refused to go anywhere with out him and vice versa.

"That was actually the best day of my life." Michael laughed, and it sounded genuine that time. "Because me and Calum were adopted, and we had two new baby brothers, and a loving mother and that's all we could've asked for, isn't it?" Michael takes a deep breath and says, "I'm not gonna let Ashton's fucktard of a father mess this up for us." Luke nodded, smiling at Michael sympathetically. "Let's go back to the hotel, okay? Calum and Ashton must be worried." Michael stands up without hesitation, helping Luke up as well.

♪

It was at least ten o'clock by the time Luke and Michael got home, and they found Ashton and Calum pacing the hotel room. When Ashton see's Michael, he runs up to him and hugs him, paying no mind to the clothes stuck to his skin from the rain. Michael almost immediately hugs him back, resting his chin on Ashton's head. Calum is standing back, biting his nails as he watches closely.

**A/N: Writing this made me sad! Omg okay, I'll have more Lashton from now on, I swear!~Blue**


	10. Home Is Where The Meadow Is

Ashton's father left when he was almost three, so he didn't remember the guy at all. He _does_ remember hearing his mother at two in the morning and Ashton would always go over and tell her, _'it's okay mum, I'll never leave._ ' He was about five or six then. Ashton always wondered why she hadn't decided to adopt kids earlier, but maybe it was because Harry was growing up a little and he needed a fatherly figure that could actually _talk._ When they were going to adopt Michael he refused to leave without Calum, so they brought him too.

There was tension at first, and Calum and Michael _always_ seemed to be arguing. Ashton could never catch what was going on. Calum always seemed to cling to Michael, and he'd never talk to anyone except Michael, let alone make eye contact. Calum was a nervous wreck, and everyone knew it.

Then there was Michael. Michael was the scariest person Ashton has ever met. He'd give you this _death glare_ if you even looked at _Calum_ the wrong way. Ashton could tell he was overprotective.

So that day when Ashton's father called, and Michael answered the phone, he knew everything was going to go downhill from then.

  ♪

"Flight leaves in ten minutes." Luke says as they push their way through the airport,  waiting in line to board the plane. "I had fun." Michael sighs, throwing his arms over Calum's shoulder. Calum shrugs, not looking up from his phone. "I got the worst hangover on Earth." The boys laughed, going silent afterwards. Michael had been laying around most of the day, finding a way to pay for Ashton's phone after he threw it at the wall. Ashton told him it was fine, because he never really used it anyways, but Mikey wouldn't let up.

Luke's been out of it 99.9% of the time. He'd always look at one of the boys nervously, quickly looking away if they made eye contact. Luke and Michael have been hanging out a bit more though, and Ashton's sure Calum's getting jealous.

The flight was long and boring, and the boys ended up sleeping the entire time. They were excited to be back in Sydney, and Calum, Michael and Ashton were glad to see their mum and Harry. Things were tense and awkward, and Ashton wasn't going to tell their mum about the phonecall. Michael had other ideas.

  ♪

"Dickface called." Michael says at the dinner table, and their mum looks up, her eyes wide and she was obviously surprised. She knew _exactly_ who Michael was talking about, because Michael only says Dickface when he's talking about Ashton's father. "What?" she begins, seeing if she heard right. "Dickface called Ashton." Michael says slowly and almost mechanically.   Ashton swallows his food, hiding his face with one of his hands. Calum tells Harry to go upstairs, and Harry obeys without questioning it.

"Wh-what did he want?" she asks quietly. Michael shrugs, glaring at no one in particular. Calum takes over, because it looks like Michael's about to snap. "He wanted to talk to Ashton. He thought Ashton would be able to speak by now." Calum replies as Ashton plays with his hands. "And he said some things..." Michael shifts a little, tapping his foot. "About Michael." Their mum glances at Michael and frowns. 'How did he know that stuff?' Ashton finally signs.

There's a long silence, and their mother is looking around the room quickly. Michael's jaw drops a little, and he cocks his head to the side. _"Oh my God._ " Michael begins, almost too quietly for anyone to hear. "You told him?!" Instead of replying, their mother runs her hands through her hair, staring at her lap. "Are you kidding me?!" Michael's screaming now as he paces the room. Calum and Ashton are standing too, watching Michael carefully. "You're not supposed to- you're _never_ supposed to tell anyone. It's my business!" Michael pulls at his hair, slowly dropping to the ground as Calum walks over quickly.

Ashton can't take this anymore. He can't stand seeing Michael like this, so he walks out the front door and doesn't look back.

  ♪

Luke answers the door when he hears the loud doorbell echo through his house. "Ashton?" Luke says when he recognises the curly haired boy. Ashton was messing with the sleeves on his hoodie, looking around nervously. "Dude, it's freezing out here." Luke grabs Ashton's arm and pulls him into the house. Ashton's shaking, and his teeth are chattering as he looks around nervously while Luke grabs a blanket and drapes it over him.

"What happened? Where's Mike and Cal?" Luke asks as Ashton has a seat.

'Another argument.' Is all Ashton had to sign for Luke to understand. Luke let out a quick sigh before he sat down beside Ashton. "You walked here?" Ashton nods, sort of making a laughing sound.

'I didn't really know where you lived.' His hands are shaking. 'I ended up asking Cal, cause he was worried, but he knows I'm here.' Ashton wraps his arms around himself, then looks at Luke. Ashton's face is flushed, and he's shaking terribly. Luke hugs him, trying to warm him up. 'It's really cold out there.' Ashton signs, making Luke chuckle.

There's something about Luke that's making Ashton feel... _loved._ He knows his brothers and his mum loves him, but he's not thinking like that. He's not thinking about brotherly love, or motherly love. He's thinking _true love._ No matter how corny that sounds, Ashton can't think of anything better. Luke gives him butterflies, makes him blush at the littlest of things. His arms are warm and welcoming and Luke's so caring and kind and just  _amazing._ He's never gotten frustrated when he couldn't understand Ashton, or when Michael's taken things a little too far. He's just a good person.

"Do you want to go somewhere?" Luke suddenly asks as Ashton sits up, looking into the boys blue eyes. 'Back out there?' Ashton signs with a scoff.

"To the meadow." Luke cocks his head to the side. Ashton shrugs, then nods.

  ♪

Luke and Ashton are walking without a purpose. They're walking aimlessly, letting the beautiful silence of the night speak for them. When they came to the small, steep hill, they slowly started to make their way down it, and this time Ashton refused to let Luke help him. Once they came to the second hill just before the meadow, they paused. "Are you sure you don't want my help?" Luke asks as Ashton bites his lip. Ashton shrugs, taking a step forward. He trips over nothing, and Luke grabs him, but both of them end up rolling down the hill. Ashton hits the soft ground first, Luke landing on top of him.

They're both laughing, Ashton's cheeks turning a bright red as he looks into Luke's blue eyes. They stare at each other for a second, and the feeling in Ashton's stomach isn't butterflies anymore, it's dragons. Ashton leans up and kisses Luke on the lips, immediately closing his eyes. Luke moves back a little, but doesn't detach his lips from Ashton's. His eyes are wide as Ashton pulls away, looking at Luke in shock.

Ashton has never kissed anyone before, let alone a boy. And Luke's straight, right? Now Ashton's standing up, signing a nervous and quick apology. "Ash, hey, slow down." Luke tries, but the boy looks like he's about to cry now as he ran a hand through his messy hair. So Luke grabs him and kisses him gently, noticing how quickly Ashton calmed down. They kissed for another few seconds, and the electricity through the kiss made Ashton's heart leap.

They pulled away from each other, and this time _Luke_ was blushing. "I-" Luke began, looking at his feet nervously. "Ahem..." Luke rolls his eyes, trying to look for something to stay. "Those stars, huh? They look nice, don't they?" Ashton's smiling widely, sliding his hands into his pockets as he sits on the ground. Luke sits beside him, and they silently watch the stars glowing in the dark night.

**A/N: The kiss.... it's here. I'm bad at writing kiss scenes but this is how I'm gonna try to make up for writing all that bad stuff about Michael and Calum. Anyways, Lashton, Muke, and Malum. Get prepared to get the feels.~ Blue**


	11. Algebra Sucks

"It's late." Luke said as he helped Ashton up the hill. "I'll walk you home, yeah?" Ashton shrugged.  
'I don't really feel like going home right now. Things are pretty bad back home.' Ashton signed, resting his head on Luke's shoulder. "I'll stay with you." Luke pushed. "Your brothers need you." And with that Luke grabbed Ashtons arm and led him towards his house.

Michael was cooped up in is room when Ashton and Luke arrived, and Calum was playing his real guitar on the couch, mumbling the lyrics to a Nirvana song. "Welcome back bud," Calum says as Ashton realises that there is broken things _everywhere._ A vase is on the ground and the flowers are lying beside it as water decorated the floor. A lamp was broken, along with two of Ashton's drum sticks. Ashton sighed, because those were his only pair of drumsticks. There's a hole in the television, and one of the blades on the ceiling fan is broken in half. "What the hell happened?" Luke asked as he picked up what was left of the vase.  Calum shrugs casually, not looking up from the guitar.

There's another guitar in the corner that was missing all the strings and the neck was broken off. There were scratch marks on it, and part of the body of the intrument was split in half. It looks like there was _blood on it._ Ashton takes a step towards it, his eyes widening. 'This is Michael's!' Ashton whips around to look at Calum, who _still_ hasn't looked up. He then turns to Luke and nods at Calum. "What happened to Michael's guitar?" Luke asks, and finally, Calum stops playing at sort of glares at Luke.  
"He broke it."  
'That can't be right.' Ashton signed. 'He saved all his money for it.' Ashton pulled at the broken guitar. Calum shrugs then goes back to playing. "He broke it." He repeats. Ashton let out a sigh as he picked up his broken drumsticks.

'What did she say to him?' he signed, making sure Calum could see. 'Cal, what did mum say?' Calum shook his head, sticking his tongue out as he continued to play. "Nothing bad actually." Calum bit his lip, letting his fingers rest on the strings. "Dickface showed up."   
'My dad?!' Ashton glances at Luke.  
"Yep, right to our front door. Barges in and asks where you are. Mike and I were trying to get him to leave, and mum was just yelling at him. Then the _fucker_ says he has custody over you." Calum looks at Ashton for his reaction, and when he sees the boy staring back at him wide eyed, he continues. "Michael got really angry. Way worse than last time. He punched the guy in the face and forced him out the house, but the guy was really persistant, so he pushed his way through and started breaking shit."

Calum pointed at the television. "Kicked a hole into the TV first. Broke some more things, then ran up into your room, broke your drum sticks and threw them. Then he got Mike's guitar." Calum let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair. "Came down stairs waving it around and taunting Michael. Broke the neck of it and threw it on the ground. Mum called the cops, so your dad ran." Calum laid back, messing with the strings on his guitar.

"Michael was so... out of it. Then he started ripping the strings off with his hands, got blood _everywhere._ After that he kicked it in and just ruined it. Said it was a real waste of money anyways. That thing was three thousand dollars. _Three thousand._ We could've gotten it fixed when just the neck was broken, but Michael wasn't thinking, and it's hopeless now. Mum talked to the cops, and now she's in her room calling up lawyers and shit." Ashton sighed, running a hand through his hair.

  ♪

"Maybe today's a bad day, Michael." Luke began. "You don't have to be here." Michael shrugs, twisting his phone in his hand. "I don't want to stay home either." Michael mumbles.  
'What about Josh?' Ashton signs.  
"What about him?" Michael scoffs. "If he gives me trouble I'll beat the shit out of him. Simple as that." They knew Michael wasn't bluffing.

Halfway through the day Ashton and Luke heard a crowd out in the hallways, screaming and shouting. Ashton looked up at Luke, who let out a gasp when he saw Calum bolting towards them, his lip busted. "Michael!" He yelled, and whipped around, heading back towards the crowd. It took only but a second for Ashton and Luke to proccess what he meant, and in a flash they were behind Calum.

The three boys were pushing their way through the crowd to see Michael pinning Josh against the locker, getting surrounded by two other boys. Calum yelled a warning to Michael, and the boy looked up as someone pulled him off of Josh by his hair. Luke reacted first and tackled the boy, letting Michael take a few steps back and find his bearings. Calum punched the third boy in the face, while Michael turned back to Josh, who was covering his bloodied nose. Luke had been pinned down, and Ashton pulled out his Algebra book and chugged it at the other boy. He hit the ground with a yell, clutching the back of his head.

Luke looked up at him, then nodded. Somehow Michael had ended up on the ground, and Josh was kicking him in the stomach. Calum grabbed Josh by his shirt, slamming him against the ground. That's when the teachers appeared, and the crowd scattered as Luke, Michael, Josh, Calum, Ashton and the two other boys stared at the teachers in shock.

  ♪

"We're gonna get suspended." Luke whispered nervously as they sat in the office. "How did the fight even start?" Michael was holding his left side, wincing when he moved to face Luke.  
"He was talking about Ashton." Michael sighed, lifting his shirt up to show the nasty bruise on his side. "I think he broke my ribs." Michael winced.  
"I think you broke his face." Calum laughed, placing the ice pack on his cheek. Luke had a black eye, which he was covering with his hand. Michael chuckled a little, then groaned. "Ow, it hurts to laugh. It really hurts to laugh." That's when Ashton started giggling, hidding his face in his hands. They all burst into a fit of giggles, laughing whenever Michael complained about the pain.

"Ashton stop laughing, you're the only one that didn't get hurt." Michael sighed, leaning back in the chair. Michael burst into hysterics, covering his face with his free hand. "Y-You- I can't believe you threw your Algebra book at the kid."  
'You saw that?' Ashton signed.  
"Hell yeah I saw that." Luke began to laugh too as Calum tried to stop himself from laughing. "And _damn_ Calum you threw some pretty good punches." Michael closed his eyes, grinning. "I am in so much pain right now." He let out some sort of hiccup, making the boys laugh harder.

"What the _hell?_ " A familiar voice began. Calum looked up, face red as he tried to stop laughing so he could speak. "Hey mum!" he managed to say, but it sounded like he was high.  
"Oh my goodness, my poor boys." She said as she walked up to them, examining their wounds (including Luke) She snatched the icepack from Calum's hand and began to move his face around, looking at his cheek. She then lifted Mike's shirt, frowning at the bruise. She poked it lightly, making the boy jump. She then went over to Luke, examining his black eye. "Are you okay, Ashton?" she asked when she saw the boy was untouched. 'The spine broke off of the Algebra book so we have to pay for it.' he signed, and the boys burst out laughing, laughing harder when Michael stood up with a groan and walked out the school, saying the laughter hurt too much.

**A/N: I just needed to write a lighthearted chapter somehow because y'all need this. ~Blue**


	12. This Is How You Start A Band

"How come I've never been here before?" Calum asks as he runs around the meadow.

"Last time we were here you were setting up for the party." Michael explains as he lays on his stomach, pulling out his phone. Luke and Ashton glance at each other with grins on their faces. "Do you think I can run around naked here?"

"DON'T DO IT!" Luke and Michael yell in unison as Ashton covers his eyes. Calum is running in the distance, and it's kind of hard to see him. He's twisting around and singing at the top of his lungs before he collaspes on his back, out of breath.

"Seriously, Luke how did you find this place?" Michael asks as Ashton sits in Luke's lap. Luke shrugs, resting his cheek on the back of Ashton's shoulder. "I was just wandering around one day and I wondered what was off the trail. I mean, it looks like it's only forest and trees but past it, there's this place."

'I never thought I'd be so in love with a meadow.' Ashton signed, leaning back so he can look up at Luke. Luke winks, and Ashton immediately blushes.

They haven't brought up the kiss yet, but it's becoming more and more obvious that they like each other. Well, _more than like._ Calum has noticed how close and cuddly Ashton and Luke have been, and he keeps chanting " _Lashton"_ even though Luke and Ashton have no idea what that means. Michael is either oblivious or ignoring the relationship between Ashton and Luke, because he hasn't commented yet, and Michael comments on _everything._

So when the four boys gets to Ashton's house, and Michael locks himself in the bathroom with Luke, Luke thinks he's going to spontanously combust because of how intimadating Michael was looking. If looks could kill, Luke would be in a body bag by now. Mike hops onto the sink, kicking his legs as Luke stands in the corner nervously. Mike bites his lip,pulling at the bottom of his shirt. "The _fuck_ does Lashton mean?" Michael suddenly mumbles with a grin, and Luke calms down a little. "I'm guessing Luke and Ashton mashed together, but I don't know."

Michael looks up at Luke, and it's obvious the boy jumps a little. The anger in Michael's eyes was just...murderous. "Okay, okay, Ashton and I aren't dating." Luke puts his hands up in defense. "We just kissed. I mean it wasn't just a kiss-" Michael stands up. "I mean it was just a kiss! It was just a kiss that's all. Nothing else. Just a...kiss." Michael smiles, and pats Luke on the shoulder.

"Are you a virgin, Luke?" he suddenly asks.

"Uh... yeah."

"Good, let's keep it that way." and with that Michael unlocks the door and leaves as Luke looks around in shock.

Calum walks by the bathroom and freezes. "Oh, we were looking for you." Calum frowns. "Dude you look like you saw a ghost, what's up?" Luke snaps out of it, shaking his head as he forces a laugh.

"Nothing, I'm... fine."

 ~

'Are you okay?' Ashton signs to Luke, who was staring at the math textbook blankly. It had been two days since him and Michael had... the talk, and Luke was still a bit shaken up. Ashton snapped his fingers in front of Luke's face, and the boy glanced at him. "Hm?" Luke stares at Ashton.

'We have to get this homework done.'

"Why does it even matter? We got suspended." Luke leans back, letting the book drop to the floor with a thud. 'We still have to do the work, Luke. Come on, it's simple subtraction.'  
"In highschool, no form of subtraction is simple." Luke mumbles into the pillow that he had hid his face with. 'Did Michael say something to you?' Ashton signed after hitting Luke in the stomach so he could see. Luke bit his lip, sitting up. His hair was pointing in several different directions now. Luke doesn't reply to the question, and the two boys end up sitting there in silence for a second.

Ashton suddenly reaches up for Luke's hair and begins to flatten it out, a small grin on his face. Luke shoos his hand away, scooting close beside him so parts of Ashton's book could be on his lap too. "Homework." Luke says with a smile. Ashton nods, kissing Luke on the lips.

The door opens and they immediately pull away. Luke looks up to see Calum, and Ashton's looking out the window, trying to hide his red face. "Oh," Calum begins, immediately smiling. "What are you doing?" Luke cleared his throat, running a hand through his hair.  
"Homework. Subtraction." Calum grins widely, and Luke knows there's an innuendo coming.  
"Remember, the bigger number goes on top." Luke immediately got the joke, and he flips Calum off, but Ashton didn't seem to get it. 'Huh?' he signs.

"The joke went over his head." Luke sighs.  
"Will that be the only thing going over his head?" Cal makes the blowjob motion, and Ashton understood that one. Ashton covers his face with his hands as Luke grabs the closest object (which was their algebra book) and throws it at Calum. The boy squeals and turns to run, but the book ends up hitting him in the spine. They hear the sound of Calum hitting the floor, queitly throwing profanities as he rolls on the ground.

Ashton lets out an embarressed laugh, looking at Luke apologetically. "Oh, yeah." Luke says after glancing at Ashton's drum set in the corner. "I got something for you." Luke gets up and goes over to his backpack, pulling out two light brown wooden drumsticks. He hands them to Ashton, and the boys face immediately lights up. 'You didn't have to-' Ashton began to sign, but Luke grabbed his hands.

"I wanted to." He slides the drumsticks into Ashton's hands and the boy begins to examine them with a wide smile on his face. "Go ahead, try them out." Luke nods at the drumset, and Ashton gets up and sits behind the drums.

'What should I play?' Ashton signs, examing the kit just in case his father messed up anything.   
"I don't know. Do you know any Nirvana?" Ashton gives him a look of disbelief. As if to say "Duh" he rolled his eyes and began to play. Michael could be heard complaing down the hall, saying that Ashton was keeping him from concentrating on his game, but Ashton either ignored him or didn't hear him because he began to play louder.

~

'We have to find a way to replace Mikey's guitar.' Ashton signs. Ashton, Luke and Calum were at some old playground by an icecream place. Calum was playing on the swing set, and Luke was relaxing on the stairs as Ashton hung upside down on the monkey bars. "What?" Luke said, not really sure what Ashton signed. "You're upside down."   
"He said we need to find a way to replace Mikey's guitar." Calum calls. Luke looks over to him, and Calum shrugs. "I'm a pro at sign language."   
"How much was it?" Luke looks up at Ashton. "Three thousand?"  
"Just about." Calum says as he goes over to the monkey bars and messes with Ashton's hair.

"How did he get that much money in the first place?"  
"Some she-cop that like, helped Michael before he got adopted lended him a lot of money 'cause she knew how much he loves to play guitar. I helped pay, and so did mum and Ash and Harry."

"Can't he just, tell the cop what happened? Maybe she can help." Luke suggested. Ashton shook his head. 'Mike said something happened to her. She got transferred to another station or something.' Luke nodded. "So what do we do?"

"Sell cookies."  Calum suggested. Ashton laughed. Calum glared up at him, shrugging. "I was being serious." Luke shook his head.

"That won't work. We can't sell that many cookies. We need three thousand dollars, Cal." Calum rolled his eyes as he began to think. Ashton made some sort of gasping noise as he fell from the monkey bars, slamming against the ground. He sat up, looking around in shock as he clutched the back of his head.

"What was that?" Luke asked as he helped him up, and Ashton was hopping up and down now, signing in phrases that didn't make sense. 'Band!' was all Luke caught."Dude..." Calum said quietly. "We can totally be in a band."  
"No we can't." Luke huffed.  
"Yes we totally, fucking can! Come on! Ash has the drums, I've got my bass guitar, Michael plays guitar too and I've heard you sing!"

'He can play guitar too.' Ashton signed, nodding Luke. Calum pointed at Ashton with a grin.  
"Dude, we could totally be in a band! We can do gigs and stuff."  
"What about Michael huh? If he plays guitar, what's he gonna do if he doesn't have one?"  
"We'll use Mike's old guitar." Calum winked, making Luke roll his eyes. "Come on, we don't have to do this forever. We just need to raise enough money to get Mike a new guitar."  
"Why don't we get real jobs?" Luke suggested. "Yeah, and Mike will work at Target." Calum replied.

"Fine, majority rules." Calum snatches out his phone and dials Michael's number. He puts it on speaker phone and holds it out in front of him.

 _"Hello?"_ Michael says into the phone.  
"Oh, hey Mike. It's me, Cal." Calum begins. They hear Michael scoff. _" No shit, I have caller ID Cal. Aren't you just down the street? Why are you calling me?"_ There's a short silence before Michael continues. _"Did you push Ashton off the slide again?"_  
"Dude that was two years ago."  
 _"No, that was last month!"_ Calum makes some sort of 'oh' sound as he glances at Ashton. "That's not what I'm calling for. We need money... obviously... so what do you think about being a band? Me, you, Ashton and Luke? That would be cool wouldn't it?" Calum bites his lip as he hears Michael moving around, then he hears the microwave turn on. _"Yeah, it would be cool and all but my guitar is being used as wood for the fireplace now."_  
"You have your old one."   
" _My old one is shitty."_  
"Just for a bit, Mikey! Come on, please?" Michael sighs.  
 _"Fine."_ Calum silently cheers as Luke groans. Ashton throws his fists in the air.  
"Thanks Michael!"  
 _"Yeah, yeah. I'm hanging up now. I have pizza to eat."_ Michael doesn't even say goodbye before hanging up. 


	13. Stay The Fuck Away From My Guitar

Luke had spent that night after Michael had agreed on the band thing. (Michael _insisted_ that Luke slept in the guest room and Luke did without protest) Calum woke everyone up at the asscrack of dawn becuase, man was that boy excited. His methods of waking people up could get him killed.

The way he woke up Luke was by flat out crushing him. Calum could make himself a dead weight, and Luke couldn't move at all. Calum woke up Ashton by throwing a bucket of ice water onto him, and the boy responded by flipping him off with both middle fingers as he got out the bed, shivering. Now the way he woke Michael up, Luke and Ashton were surprised that Michael hadn't choked Calum. Calum had grabbed one of their amps, plugged it up to his guitar, and shrummed the highest note he could manage and Michael had jumped awake, immediately throwing profanities and at one point he tried to slap Calum, but the younger boy was too quick.

"I bet you're all wondering why we've gathered here." Calum said from where he sat on the amp.  
"Nope," Michael yawned. "We all know why we're here. We just went over this yest-"  
"You can't interrupt the leader of the band!" Calum yelled, snapping Ashton out of his little drance when he began to drift off. Michael gave Luke and Ashton a _what-the-fuck-is-he-talking-about_ look. "You're not the leader." Michael huffed.  
"Yeah I am! I brought us together."  
"I think _I_ should be the leader. I'm the oldest." Michael sits up, glaring at Calum.  
"I believe we all have an equal amount of reasons to be leader." Luke adds quietly.  
'I don't see why Cal can't be the leader.' Ashton signs.  
"Quiet Ashton. That's your terretes talking. You don't know what you're signing." Michael hushed.  
"He doesn't have terrets!" Calum protested.  
"I'm the leader."

'Can we come up with a band name first?' Ashton suggested. Luke laughed.  
"Scratch that. Can we play first? See if we sound like shit or not." Luke suggested.  
"True, we should- we should probably do that." Calum agreed.

~  
"Do you want me to be honest?" Michael began as they sat in the meadow. "We sounded like shit."  
"No we didn't! We just need a little practice is all." Calum replies.  
'It wasn't that bad, was it?' Ashton signs.  
"It was decent." Luke adds.  
"Then it's settled. Mikey's tone deaf." Calum laughs

The four boys stayed there longer than they expected. By the time Luke checked his phone, it was one in the morning. "Oh shit, we gotta get back." He says as he stands up, pulling Ashton up with him. Calum was reluctant, and Michael insisted that their mother was fine with it, but they left the meadow anyways.

They were talking loudly, going from bands to that one time Calum accidentally pushed Michael in front of a car. So when they hear the sound of screeching tires, they look up to see a black sedan pulling up to the sidewalk. A man walks out, and Michael's face immediately turns red. "Not you!" Michael groans. He balls his fists as he tries to make a move towards the man, but Luke and Calum grab him. "Ashton?" The man says, ignoring Michael as he approaches the curly haired boy. Ashton takes several steps back, running into Luke. "Fuck off." Calum says. "He doesn't want to see you."

"He's my son." The man snaps. "And I have custody over him. Come on Ashton." Ashton scoffs in disbelief. 'Fourteen years. You've been gone fourteen years and you expect me to go with you?' Ashton signs. Michael laughs. "Sorry Ash, remember, the dick doesn't know sign language." Michael says. 'I hope he understands this.' Ashton signs before showing the man his lovely middle finger.

The man makes a growling type noise before he snatches Ashton by his arm, making all the boys yell and shout. At one point Michael and Luke had grabbed Ashton, and there was a loud bang, followed by the sound of Calum hitting the ground. Ashton's father hesitates for a second before getting in the car and driving away. "CALUM!" Michael screeches before dropping to the ground where the boy was laying.

Blood was flowing from his stomach as the boy struggled to breathe. "Ashton, give me your hoodie." Michael ordered. Michael looks up to see Ashton's eyes shut tightly as he covered his ears. Luke is staring at Calum in shock. "Ashton give me your fucking hoodie!" Michael snaps, and Ashton looks up and quickly takes his hoodie off and hands it to his brother. Michael presses it against Calum's wound, and the boy groans in pain.

Luke pulls out his phone, dialing the number for the police. Calum's struggling to breathe, and Michael's hands are covered in blood. Michael's about to cry, and Ashton can tell. "Okay Cal, okay." Michael begins. "Don't think about the pain, yeah? Think about... band names. Think about our stupid little band. We need a name for a band don't we, Cal?" Calum nods weakly, and Luke's talking frantically as he hugs a crying Ashton.

Calum starts coughing, and blood shoots from his mouth. "Cal! Okay, Calum do you remember the first day we met?" Michael's voice cracks as Calum looks at him, eyes squinted. "Good, look at me. You remember when we first met? In the foster home and the first thing you said to me was 'stay the fuck away from my guitar'." Calum laughs a little shutting his eyes. "Keep your _fucking_ eyes open Calum I fucking swear if you close your eyes..." The first tear streams down Michael's face as Calum opens his eyes again. They can hear the ambulance in the distance.

"You're going to be okay, understand?" Michael presses harder against the wound, making Calum jump. "You'll be just fine. After this we'll be in a stupid little band and make stupid little covers and we'll be in highschool again and everything will be okay. I promised you something three years ago. You go, I go remember? Calum, please don't go."

**A/N: OMG I DIDN'T WANT TO DO THIS TO Y'ALL I'M DYING INSIDE I WILL POST THE NEXT CHAPTER ASAP I PROMISE ~BLUE**


	14. The Tears Of An Angel

The hospital lights are blinding Michael. He was blinded enough by his tears to begin with. Michael, Ashton, Luke, Harry and their mother were sitting in the waiting room on the edge of their seats. Ashton has never seen Michael cry before, and it was probably the most upsetting thing he's ever seen. The doctors and nurses refused to let the family in, no matter how much Michael screamed and punched walls and cried. They just wouldn't let them in.

At one point a nurse called for their mother, and she went up reluctantly. The boys strained to hear from where they sat. Their mother covered her hands with her mouth, and Michael pulled at his hair as he hung his head. Their mother walked over and sat down. "Michael don't worry, he's alive." she immediately said when she saw Michael. "They said he woke up somehow during the surgery, and it's going to take a little longer than it should."

"What about Ashton's dad?" Michael growled. "Did the police find that fucker?" His mum went silent, and looked down at her hands. "You do realise that that man is fucking insane?" Michael continued. He let out a sigh as he leaned back in his chair, looking up.

They waited until five in the morning. Ashton had fallen asleep on Michael's shoulder, and Harry had been dropped off home by their mum two hours earlier. Luke refused to leave no matter how much Michael insisted. When the doctor came out with a clipboard in his hand Michael jumped up, scaring Ashton awake. Luke and Ashton stood up as well as Michael padded over to the man. "Is he okay?" Michael demanded. The doctor frowned.

"He's in critical condition. The bullet broke into multiple shards, and we had trouble getting it out. It hit a major artery." Michael wrapped his arms around himself.

"There's terrible blood clotting, and we've put him to sleep for now." The doctor continues. "We just have to hope his body does it's job." The doctor nods at Michael's hands. "How about we get that blood off of you." Michael looks down at his hands. He hadn't even noticed that there was still blood on them. Michael nods, not really sure what he's doing anymore.

~

"Look at this." Michael says quietly, forcing a laugh. "He went ahead and got himself shot." Ashton's standing in the corner of the small room, biting his nails as Luke stands beside Michael. "The doctor said that when he woke up during the surgery he was saying something." Luke says quietly. Michael looks up, expecting an answer. "He was saying that he had to keep his eyes open."  Michael laughs a little. "Well it's good to know he listens." he says as he turns back to the boy.

Calum was hooked up to all kinds of tubes that were pumping blood into his bloodstream and helping him breathe. The most annoying one was the heart monitor. The beeping was so obnoxious; beeping every other second. Michael was kind of preparing for when it flat lined.

'You know he's not going to die, right?' Ashton signs, as if reading Michael's mind. 'I mean it looks bad now, but it's Calum. He'll come through like he always does.' Michael was just hoping Ashton was right.

"Ash, can I talk to you for a second?" Luke says before leaving the hospital room. Ashton slowly follows, nodding at Michael with a sympathetic smile. Luke and Ashton are the only one's in the hallway. Luke's hair is a mess as he runs his hands through it. "This is my fault, isn't it?" Luke asks quietly. 'What?' Ashton signs. 'No!'

"I took you to the meadow and I should've never taken you guys there. Four teenagers boys hanging out in a meadow? Are you kidding me? Maybe if we had been at your house or something we never would've run into your dad."

'You didn't see it coming, Luke. No one did.' Ashton signs, looking at Luke. The boy looked so small right now. His eyes were nervous as he bit his lip ring and messed with his fingers. "I _never_ meant for this to happen. I just wanted to go to a stupid school, and I ran into you, then I wanted to go to a stupid meadow, then I ran into you _again_ , then I wanted..." Luke looks down at his face. "Then I wanted you, Ashton." Ashton was prepared to sign som ething, but lowered his hands and looked down at his feet.

"I know this is a really bad time and it's _very_ selfish of me-" Ashton turns around, biting his lip. "Look, I know how bad the timing is, but Ashton please, let me get this off of my chest." Ashton glares at him. 'If I could scream at you I would.' he signs. 'Luke, my brother is dying in there. My insane father is out somewhere and Michael's lost it. I have never seen Michael like this.'

"Ashton-"

'Can you go home or something, please?' Ashton looks up at Luke, his eyes squinted as he tries to hide the tears forming in his eyes. Ashton shakes his head. 'I'll tell you when Calum wakes up, okay? I'll text you.' and with that Ashton pushes open the door and shuts it behind him, leaving Luke in the hospital hallway.

~

"Where'd Luke go last night?" Michael asks quietly. Michael and Ashton were sitting in Michael's room, letting the television blare loudly as they sat quietly. Ashton shrugs, biting his lip. 'I think he said he had to go.' Ashton lies. Michael looks at him curiously, because Ashton's hands were shaking as he signed. "Mhm..." Michael doesn't question it any further.

"Hey Ash," Michael begans after a long silence had filled the room. "Do you still have all the pictures we took? I mean, from like three years ago to now." Ashton nods, pulling out his phone. 'At one point I had to put it all on my laptop cause I ran out of space on my phone.' Ashton signs.

"So all of it is on your laptop?" Michael asks. Ashton shrugs. "I'll get you a real camera, okay? That'll be good, won't it?"

'I guess.' Another silence fills the space between the boys as the Television continues to talk loudly.

"I don't know what I'm going to do if Calum dies." Michael says mechanically. "I've lost too many people Ashton. I don't know how much more I can take."

'It'll be okay.' Ashton signs.

"I hope so."

 **A/N:** **I'm sorry for short chapters! I get home at like 6 everyday then I've got homework to do so I'll try my best to make chapters longer. Anyways, what do you think is going to happen between Ashton and Luke? What about Calum? What about Michael? There is so much going on right now.~Blue**


	15. Juice Boxes and Promises

There are many types of ways to ignore people. There's the 'You don't know what you did wrong and that's wrong' way where you'll only speak to them when necassary. You don't laugh at their jokes, or smile when you see them. There's venom in both your eyes and voice when you're near them. Then there's the 'I'm popular and you're a new kid' way where you act like that person is invisble. If they bump into you, act like no one just dropped their binder on the floor. If they say hi, pretend there's an annoying bug flying around your ears. Then there's the 'You can try but it won't work' where you avoid the person _completely._ See that person in the hallway? Turn your ass around and head in the other direction. Who cares if you just came from that way? Assigned seats by each other in class? Sit somewhere else. Ignore the teachers complaints.

The bad thing was, Luke knew that Ashton was doing the 'You can try but it won't work' method of  ignorance, and he felt terrible. Ashton and Michael hadn't been going to school for the past two days and now their back, and Ashton still hasn't said a word about Calum. Luke was scared. If Calum had died, surely Ashton would've told him, right? He's not _that_ mad at him, is he?

Surely he is. When Luke see's Ashton and Michael at their lockers, he quickly walks over. Ashton looks up, spots Luke and has this _look_ in his eyes. Ashton glances at Michael, grabs his books and disappears with Michael in the crowd of freshmen. Luke sighs, slamming his fist against a locker as he looks around, looking like a lost puppy.

~

Luke sees it as absolute bullshit when their Algebra teacher assigns Ashton and Luke together, and Michael doesn't pay attention _at all_ during Algebra, so when the teacher says "Ashton, Luke, you're partnered up. Luke, you have to help Ashton with his make up work." Michael perks up, glancing behind him to stare at Luke with a 'I will fucking kill you' look. Luke frowns, because the assignment wasn't his fault.

Everyone starts to move their seats as Ashton makes his way from where he sat in the front of the room beside Michael to the back with Luke. He plops down beside him with a loud huff. They do nothing but stare at the blank sheets of papers on their desks, and Ashton clears his throat. Luke looks up to see Ashton glaring at him. Luke sighs. "Let's start with notes." Luke says quietly as he pulls out two sheets of paper from his binder that are filled with algerbraic expressions and definitions. Ashton takes the papers from Luke and begins to rewrite it.

"Ashton," Luke says queitly. Ashton doesn't even move. "Please, don't ignore me." Ashton ignores him. Luke sighs again, running a hand through his hair. "Come on, please, just let me apologize. I need to know you're listening." Ashton flips the page of the notes. Luke snatches the pencil from Ashton's hands, and the boy looks at him in shock as Luke snaps it in half and tosses it in the trashcan behind them.

Luke grins, and Ashton throws his hands in the air in frustration. "Now you have to ask me for a pencil. No one else in here can read sign language except Michael, and you have nothing to write with." Luke lowers his voice to a whisper. "Please don't go up to Michael and ask for a pencil. He'll seriously kick my ass for _breaking your pencil._ " Ashton laughs. Luke barely heard it, and Ashton had covered his mouth with his hand casually. Ashton rolls his eyes, ripping off the edges of his paper. 'Can I have a pencil?' he finally signs.   
"Yes, Ashton Iriwn, you may have a pencil." Luke says, opening up his binder. He looks through it for a second and freezes. "Okay, I only have one pencil." Luke glances at Ashton to see the boy looking at him with a smug look. Luke grabs the pencil he was using and hands it to Ashton.

'Is this your way of apologizing? Breaking my pencil then giving me a new one?' Ashton signs. 'That's not too clever.' Luke shrugs.  
"I have my apology planned out, Ash. If you just-" Ashton waves his hand, silencing Luke.  
'If Calum leaves that hospital in a wheelchair and not a body bag then I'll accept whatever apology you have planned.' Ashton signs.  
"Fair enough, I guess." Luke says quietly.   
'Now can you shut up so I can finish this stupid make up work?'

~

"Ashton, wake up!" Something slams against Ashton's stomach and the boy jumps up, landing on the floor. It's pitch black in the room, and Ashton tries to feel around, but all he feels is the soft carpet. He can't even sign because he can't see his own hands. The light flashes on and Ashton places his hands over his face. "Ashton, hurry up! Cal's awake." It took Ashton a second to realise it was Michael's frantic voice, and by the time he moved his hands from his face, Michael was out the room and down the stairs.

Ashton hops up, sliding on his shoes and grabbing a hoodie as he rushes down the stairs. Michael literally speeds to the hospital and they rush inside. Luke's in the waiting room. Ashton glances up at Michael, but the boy is too busy heading towards Calum's room. Michael, Ashton and Luke enter the room to see Calum sitting up a little, one hand around his chest while he's using the other to hold a juice box. Calum's not paying attention, so he hadn't noticed the three other boys in the room.

"What the fuck?!" Michael says loudly, making Calum jump, gasp, then grab his chest again.  
"What?" Calum asks as he reaches under his pillow and pulls out another juice box. Luke bursts out laughing, covering his mouth. Michael cannot believe what he was seeing. Calum had just gotten _shot_ and he was in critical condition and _dying_ and the first thing he does when he wakes up is drinks a juice box, like nothing ever happened. Michael can't help but smile."You got shot." Michael says slowly. "Yeah, but I didn't die." Calum scoffs before taking a sip from the juice box. "Oh, dude, these juice boxes are like, the best. I have like five more stashed under my pillow cause the nurses didn't want me to have any, but my doctor is badass and stuff and he got me a whole bunch."

Michael just stares as Luke and Ashton walk over, grabbing a juice box for themselves. "I can't believe you." Michael huffs. Calum looks up at him and smiles, cocking his head to the side. He holds the juice box in his hand. Michael walks over and snatches the juice box from him. "Alright, have we come up with a band name yet?" Calum asks. The boys look at him.  
"You got shot." Luke says.  
"Yeah, I think we all know that. Hey! The officers investigating totally let me see the bullet shards."  
"Cal! Are you being serious right now?" Michael asks in disbelief.

Calum sighs, slowly leaning back. "I'm talking about juice boxes and band names because I'm trying to bullshit my way out of this conversation." Calum says bluntly. "I kinda got shot the other day and it was probably the most traumatic experience of my life, _so_ if you'd prefer to talk about finding Ashton's father and the trials we have to go through to send him to jail then yeah! Let's talk about that." Calum glares at them, and they all tense up.   
'We were just worried about you.' Ashton signs. 'We thought....' Calum forces a laugh.  
"See guys, this is depressing. Let's talk about these juice boxes, yeah?" Calum pulls out his third juice box in five minutes. "What if our band name was juice box?" Calum tries, and the boys laugh. "That would be cool, wouldn't it? The Juice Boxers." the boys laugh harder. "Ahhh we're going to Hell." he says with a laugh.

**A/N: I just bullshitted this like I do to every essay. Two chapters in one night? How did that happen? Well let me tell you a little story. My WiFi is shit and my Netflix is being stupid, so I had nothing else to do. Anyways, thankkssss for readdddinggg!!~ Blue**


	16. Sacrificial Reasons

**Btw guys, this chapter has ALOT of Lashton. :P have fun reading!**

Michael had stayed at the hospital to relax with Cal, and Luke and Ashton headed towards the meadow. Luke was rambling on and on about band names and how much Cal was bothering him about it, and Ashton just nodded with a small grin on his face.

After taking their time down the hill Luke and Ashton had a seat, and Ashton rested his head on his shoulder. "So you accept the apology I never got to say?" Luke asks, and Ashton laughs.

'Cal's alive and drinking juice boxes and Mike's _kind of_ back to normal so I guess I forgive you.' Ashton signs.  
"Aw," Luke says. "You love me."   
'No I don't.' Ashton signs with a laugh.  
"Yes you do." Luke pushes. "I know you do." He smiles at Ashton, and Ashton smiles back.   
'How do you know I love you?' Ashton signs quizically.  
"'Cause I love you." Luke says before leaning in and kissing Ashton. Ashton grins, looking at Luke's eyes as he cups his face. 'You're so cute.' Ashton signs. 'Cuteness is disgusting.' He plays as he stands up, making Luke laugh.

"Well you're just a bundle of cuteness, Ash!" Luke says as he stands up as well. "You do realise you're adorable, don't you?"  
'Oh,' Ashton begins with a scoff. 'I know. I use it to my advantage.' Ashton grins as he begins to walk away. "That's not fair!" Luke runs up beside Ashton and throws his arm over his shoulder.

'You can use your cuteness to your advantage.' Ashton shrugs. 'You bite your lip quite alot, so that's how you get the girls. Well, guys in this case.' Ashton grins. Luke scoffs, pretending to be offended.  
"I am the straighest guy you will ever meet." he jokes.  
'You're as straight as a circle, Luke.'

Ashton pauses for a second, glancing up at Luke. 'Are we like... dating?' he signs. Luke bites his lip, fidgetting with his fingers. "I mean if you want to date me then, yeah I suppose we're dating." Luke blushes. 'Oh, okay.' Ashton signs before stuffing his hands in his pockets. Luke smiles, taking one of Ashton's hands out of his pocket and holding it. 'No sex.' Ashton suddenly signs. Luke looks up, and laughs. "What?"

'No sex.' Ashton repeats.

"Oh, don't worry. I've never had sex before." Ashton makes some sort of laughing sound before looking up at Luke apologetically. 'You're kidding.'

"Nope." 'Oh that's great. Michael can use us whenever he needs the blood of virgins.' Ashton signs without expression. "Your level of sarcasm is to the max, Ash."

'It's a natural skill.'

~

'Do you think I'll ever be able to talk?' Ashton suddenly asks Luke from where they were sitting in a circle of dandelions. "I mean it all depends." Luke shrugs. "You're perfect just the way you are."

'Being able to talk would be nice too, but the doctors said-'

"Eh, fuck what the doctors say. They said there was a 98% chance that Calum wasn't going to make it. He had a 2% chance of survival Ash, and now him and Michael are sitting there talking about band names and eating goldfish. When the time comes some supernatural little thing will happen and you'll be talking so much we'd wish you were mute again." Ashton laughs, looking down at his feet.

'How come you never talk about your parents?' Ashton signs. Luke shrugs, leaning back a little.

"I don't know. My dad's never home and there's nothing too special to say about my mum. She spoils me I guess." Luke replies quietly. Ashton nods, and at one point he was sitting on Luke's lap, snuggled up against his chest. 'They sound kind of cool.' Ashton signs in front of him so Luke could see. "How do they sound cool?"

'Well they're not my parents.' Luke doesn't reply immediately. 'You know what's scary?' Ashton suddenly signs. 'What if Cal's parents, or Mike's parents come back and try to take them away? I'm always afraid that when someone knocks on the door it's not you but Cal's dad or something. That's kind of scary. I didn't really grow up with Mike and Cal, but I still see them as my real brothers, y'know?' Luke nods.

"You're really lucky to have them." Luke whispers.

'I don't know, they're kind of morons.' Ashton signs. 'And dicks.' Luke laughs.

"I've never thanked you, Ash." Luke begins. Ashton shifts so he can look at him. "I think _you're_ the best thing that's ever happened to me." Ashton smiles.

'Aw,' Ashton signs. 'You love me.' Luke laughs.

"Ah shut up."

'Make me.' Ashton sticks his tongue out.

"Alright, but I might make you moan a little." Luke smiles innocently as Ashton bursts out laughing.

'Your level of smoothness is to the max, Luke.' Ashton mocks.

"It's a natural skill." Luke replies, shaking his head.

**A/N: IT'S ONLY 800 WORDS THATS UGH I USUALLY REACH AT LEAST A THOUSAND OKAY shhhhh okay I will try to post another chapter today. Fight, fight, fight, kiss, kiss, kiss, fuck, fuck, fuck.~Blue**


	17. Four Whitw Australian Boys That Grew Up With Shit Lives

**(This chapter is basically a filler/recap kind of? It shows like all the boys pasts and stuff.)  
**

Michael's mother was schizophrenic. She had a bad case of it, and she could go from the sweetest person in the world to the most violent person in a heartbeat. Michael's like that too. He doesn't like change, and he's really overprotective. Back when he lived with his parents, Michael took care of his mum all the time. His dad was an old drunk that fucked any girl he ran into at the bar.

When he was fourteen he was caught making out with some boy that was new to his school, and his dad immediately kicked him out. At first Michael thought it was some sort of joke, and that his dad would call him and tell him to come home, but he never did, so Michael lived on the streets, and he needed a way to make money.   
  


At one point someone ended up drugging Michael, and that's when he got addicted to cocaine. So he had gone off the rails, and ended up getting arrested by some cop that he ended up nicknaming her Narcie, because he was 100% sure that she was a narc. Narcie sent him to a foster home after he did four months of community service, and that's where Michael met Calum.

~

Calum's story isn't too pleasant. He wasn't always the happy, joking boy he is now. Both of his parents were abusive, and Calum still doesn't know why. Sent into a deep depression he lost all his friends except for one, and she ended up finding out about the abuse and Calum was sent to a foster home. He was twelve, and he had been stuck there for three years. _Three._ That's when that horrifying Michael kid showed up, looking like he just broke out of prison before smoking a joint.

They kept away from each other, even though they shared a bedroom, and Calum started taking interest in the boy when he heard him singing one night. Just after that Calum screamed at Michael about his guitar, and somehow, they bonded from that.

Michael had literally saved Calum's life, and after that they were inseparable.

 ~

Being blunt and to the point here, everyone knows that Ashton's dad is an insane asshole. _Everyone knows that._

 _~_ Luke lives with his aunt, but no one knows that. Luke's parents died in an accident when he was nine, but no one knows that. Ashton doesn't know, Michael doesn't know and Calum doesn't know and Luke wants to keep it that way.

**A/N: THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I SPEND TWO HOURS DOING ALGEBRA HOMEWORK. I WRITE STUFF AND THEN JUST GO WITH IT.  Anyways, this only has 456 words. I'm trying but y'know school is a bitch and all. At least you guys know about Luke now. And Cal. And Michael. ALSO! Okay, so SSFDE is basically Ashton's story and the challenges of being mute and whatever and blah blah blah. Well guess what, guys! I am planning on making a PREQUEL to this book and it'll either be Michael's story or Calum's story or BOTH. I have to finish this first, and the more this gets noticed the harder I will work! So yeah. If you're not as excited as I am then I don't know what to think.~Blue**


	18. The Drunk Confessions Of Batman

"Luke, can I ask you something?" Calum says after he finishes his juice box. Luke looks up from his phone from where he sat in the corner. They were waiting for Michael and Ashton to return from the vending machine down stairs, but Calum was pretty sure Ashton was playing with one of the kids that had cancer because Ashton always does that. "Sure." Luke says, putting his phone down to show he was paying attention. "I don't think Michael remembers kissing you." Calum says, lifting his shirt and checking his wound with a wince. "Yeah,"  
"And Ashton doesn't know either."  
"Yeah." Luke answers slowly.  
"You should tell them." Luke immediately shakes his head

"Ashton and I _just_ made up! And I don't know how Michael will react." Luke says quickly. Calum looks at him with a reasurring smile. "But _I do._ Trust me on this, Luke. If you don't tell them, it'll come back to kick you in the balls."   
~  
"Today was so boring." Michael yawns as he leans back on the couch. Calum is sitting beside him, hugging a pillow. He had to be in a wheelchair for the next month until the wound properly healed, and all the boys were already annoyed with how difficult things were now. "Home sweet home." Calum says blankly as the stare at the bare spot where the television used to sit. "What are we gonna watch?" Luke asks. Michael pulls out his phone, grinning.  
"Thank God for Netflix." He whispers. Ashton's in the corner tapping his fingers against thew wall quietly as he music blares. He's air-drumming, and the boys don't seem to mind because he does it all the time.

"Maybe we should come up with band names." Calum suggests when Michael's Netflix doesn't load. He throws some sort of silent tantrum, preparing to throw his phone but ends up putting it back in his pocket. "Fucking Netflix." He mumbles.  
"Why are you so obssessed with this band that might not even get anywhere?" Luke asks as he waves at Ashton, making the boy scoot towards him. "It's my dying wish." Calum replies.  
"You're not dying!" Michael shouts.  
"It was a close call!"

They go silent after that, because there last resort was Netflix, and Netflix wasn't working. And Michael sure as _hell_ was not going to spend the rest of the night coming up with some shitty band name. "Let's get drunk." Michael jokes as Ashton looks up at him. Ashton grins (he can read lips quite well) and signs 'drunk in love.' The boys burst out laughing as Michael stands up and walks to the fridge. "No, seriously though. Let's get drunk!" Michael pulls out a few beers.

~

Ashton wasn't going to drink anything. Apparently, whenever he drinks he'll be out like a rock within ten minutes. At one point Ashton realised Luke had gone through five beers, and Michael and Calum noticed too. Luke seemed completely unphased by it as he sat silently while Calum and Michael bickered.

"Christmas is coming up." Calum suddenly said.  
"It's the last day of November." Michael replies.   
"Christmas is coming up." Calum repeats.  
'What are you getting m-'  
"I'm not telling you what I'm getting you!" Calum yells.  
'I was going to ask what you were getting mum.' Ashton signs with a grin.  
"Oh.

"I think I'll replace all the furniture Dickface broke." Michael says.  
"I'll get her a really nice watch." Calum grins. Ashton shrugs, because he doesn't know what he's getting her. "What are you getting your mum?" Cal asks Luke and the boy looks up from his beer.   
"Oh we don't really celebrate Christmas." He says slowly, leaning back.  
"Why not?" Michael asks.  
"I mean it's kind of the date where my parents died." Luke says casually. The boys all go silent.  
'I thought you said your mum lent you money for the plane tickets.' Ashton signs.  
"I mean not my mum, my aunt. She's like my mum though." Michael turns and frowns and Calum as Luke begins to play with his hair. "I have _never_ been drunk before." he mumbles before passing out on his back.

~

Luke wakes up with a killer headache and a cramp in his neck. He's lying in Ashton's bed, and Ashton is curled into a little ball in the chair in the corner. "Ash," Luke manages and ends up groaning. His throat was seriously sore. Ashton looks up, face lighting up when he see's Luke, but it suddenly dropped. 'Hey,' he signs. Luke smiles.  
"I got drunk, didn't I?" he asks. Ashton nods, sitting up straight as he tosses a bottle of pain killers to Luke. "I didn't know hangerovers were this bad." he groans. Ashton shrugs, and Luke laughs weakly. "I forgot. Ashton Irwin doesn't get hangovers." Luke grins. Ashton nods.

"What's wrong?" Luke finally says. Ashton shakes his head, biting his lip.  
'We're gonna be late for school.' Ashton signs before getting up and leaving. Luke watches him go silently.

**A/N: It's REALLY SHORT I'M RUSHING BECAUSE I WANTED TO KNOW IF YOU GUYS WANTED A PREVIEW TO THE PREQUEL OF THIS BOOK, CHASING THE CLOUDS... Yeah, that Malum prequel I was talking about a chapter or two ago, do you want a prequel of that? (Say yes  and flip your shit) ALSO! If you're willing to make a video (Or someone you know) for either SSFDE or CTC(Chasing the Clouds) or BOTH then message me! I will love you forever.~Blue**

 


	19. Chasing The Clouds (Preview)

**You _do not_ have to read this if you don't want to. This is just the preview thing for the prequel of SSFDE. It'll be about a page long, okay? ALRIGHT LETS DO THIS~Blue**

"Stay the _fuck_ away from my guitar." Calum growls. Michael jumps up, backing away from the guitar that was rested against the white wall. Calum's face was a crimson red, and his hands were balled into fists. "He speaks." Michael laughs.  
"Don't touch my guitar." Calum repeats firmly as he walks over towards it and begins to examine it.  
"Relax, I didn't pop a string or dent it." Michael reasurres as he backs up a little. "I know how to hold a guitar, Cal."  
"Don't call me that." Calum mumbles as he puts his guitar back down after tuning each string.  
"I just wanted to play it." Michael says quietly. Calum glares at him.  
"No one's allowed to play it without my permission, okay?" Michael nods with a grin.  
"You're quite pushy, huh? I mean I've been here, what, two weeks now and the first thing you say to me is to stay the fuck away from your guitar. I'd never guess that. I expected some really high pitched voice like, 'be my friend' or something." Calum stares at him, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I just want you out of here as soon as possible." Calum says under his breath. Calum hears the creaking of the bed as Michael sits down. "You're no bundle of unicorns and rainbows either." Michael mumbles. "How long have you been here? Three months?"  
"Three years." Calum corrects as he leans against the door frame.  
"What?"  
"Did I fucking stutter?" Calum says almost too loudly. Michael grins a little.  
"Haha, you... I like you." Michael claps his hands together. "I'm going to get to know you."  
"God no." Calum groans. "Can you just pretend this conversation never happened? I've never spoken to anyone here before. I don't even know why I'm talking to you."  
"Maybe it's because I'm a very approachable guy."  
"No you're not. You scared the shit out of me when you first got here."  
"I did? It's the hair, isn't it?" Michael messes with his pink hair  
"No, more like the drugs." Michael looks at him, trying to look surprised.

"What?" he says. Calum scoffs.  
"I know a druggie when I see one." Calum replies. Michael fidgets a little, and Calum laughs. "Don't worry, I won't say anything. Drugs are bad for you, you do know that right?"   
"So is being locked up in your room twenty-four hours a day and skipping meals." Michael glares at Calum. Calum goes silent. "Fine, we can both black-mail each other. Let's keep it simple. You stay away from me and I stay away from you."  
"We're roommates." Michael states.  
"That's all we'll ever be, understand?"

**A/N: Yes. Just yes. Excitement. That's all I have right now.~Blue**


	20. We Were Liars

Luke was getting really scared now. He couldn't remember anything from last night and it kind of felt like Michael and Calum were avoiding him, and Ashton was just acting... _different_. Is this how Michael felt the day after he drunkenly kissed Luke?

Luke and Ashton walked to school together silently. Calum didn't have to go to school for another week, and Michael drove himself to school. _He drove._ Michael doesn't like to waste gas when the location he's trying to get to is in walking distance, and now Luke is certain he's avoiding him.

"Ashton, can I ask you something?" Luke begins, making Ashton look up at him with a pity smile. "I did something bad last night, didn't I?" Ashton doesn't respond, and Luke sighs. "Please tell me why Michael's avoiding me and why you're acting this way." Ashton still didn't respond.   
'I'm sorry.' Is all Ashton signs.  
"What's so bad that you can't tell me? Chances are I already know." Ashton frowns.  
'You were really drunk last night.'   
"Yeah."  
'You're a really honest drunk.'

Luke freezes, because he already knows, and he was just hoping and praying that he was wrong. He didn't want to ruin anything. 'You said you slept with Valeria Greene before you knew were gay.' Ashton lied. Luke fell for it. "Oh," Luke forces a laugh. "No, no, I didn't, that was just me being drunk."  
'Yeah.'  
"Why is Michael mad then?"  
'Ex girlfriend.' Ashton lies. Luke nods, biting his lip.  
"Okay."

~  
Luke is waiting at Ashton's locker as the boy tries to open it, and he feels a hard shoulder brush against him. He turns around to see Michael and frowns. "Alright, Michael. What I said last night, it was a lie, okay?" Luke bursts.  
"It was?" Michael asks. Ashton is signing furiously behind Luke, and Michael can't keep up.  
"I _never_ slept with Valerie Greene." Michael nods, closing his locker half way.  
"Okay... I forgive you." It almost sounds like a question. Luke nods with a smile before disappearing in the hallway.

"Did you _FUCKing...?_!" Michael begins, earning a few glares from students.  
'I panicked!' Ashton signed in  defense. 'He asked me what was up and I was going to tell him the truth but he looked scared for a second so _I_ got scared for a second and I lied to him.'  
"You need to tell him the truth." Michael crossed his arms over his chest.  
'He already knows the truth.' Ashton signed with a frown. 'His parents died...'  
"Yeah, but he doesn't know that we know! If he were sober, he wouldn't have said anything." Ashton sighs, banging his head against the locker. 'I never would've come to this stupid school if I knew there'd be so much drama!' Ashton makes a loud groaning sound, and it sounds like a dying moose.

"I'll help you figure this out." Michael mumbles as he shuts his locker completely. "Just, don't lie anymore." Ashton scoffs.  
'What? _The_ Michael Irwin is telling _me_ not to lie?'  
"You know I hate being called that."  
'Excuse me, _the_ legendary and stupendous Michael _Clifford_ is telling me, the even more legendary and stupendous, Ashton Irwin not to lie?'  
"God, you're so cocky." Michael mumbles as he walks away. "Even if you can't talk."

~

It was two o'clock in the morning and Calum was screaming. It woke Ashton up, and it wasn't long before he and Michael were staring at each other in the hallway before they rushed towards Calum's room. They heard the sound of Harry and their mum's door opening, but they ignored it as the sound of Calum's cries grew louder. Michael pushed open the door to see Calum on the floor, leaning against his bed as he clutched his hair with one hand and his waist with the other.

"Cal, what's wrong?" Michael says, worry filling his voice as he rushes over to the boy and sits on his knees, examining Calum carefully. Ashton turned the light on, and ended up covering his eyes. "I think he had a nightmare." Michael states. "And a pretty bad one too." Calum's breathing quickly(more like hyperventilating) as Michael does his best to comfort him. "You're okay, you're here, Cal. Stop crying, it's okay."  
It's not long before Harry and their mum was standing behind Ashton quietly as Calum rambled on about the nightmare and Michael just listened carefully.

'Mike, you told Cal that he was here.' Ashton signs as he leaves Calum's room for a minute. 'What's that mean?' Michael shrugs.  
"Just this thing we used to tell each other. Nightmares can really mess with people's heads, y'know?"

~

"What are the chances that I have PTSD? Again." Calum asks blankly as they sit on the blanket in the meadow. Luke's letting a sleeping Ashton rest on him, and Michael's busy looking up songs to cover. "Little to none." Michael reassures.  
"Well how would you know?" Luke asks somewhat rudely. "Have you ever been shot?"  
"Yes, actually." Michael says a matter of factly. "It's not pleasant."   
"I don't know, you and Cal are kind of different."  
"I have PTSD." Calum mumbles.  
"You can't diagnose yourself! I don't see an M.D at the end of your name, Calum!" Michael says playfully. "Yeah, yeah, whatever."

~

Calum sits on Ashton's bed silently as Ashton scrolls through his computer, looking at the thousands of pictures he's taken. 'Remember this one?' Ashton signs. Calum groans.  
"Ugh, we're fetuses." He mumbles.  
'What's that supposed to mean?'   
"Nothing."

'I don't have that many pictures of Luke.'   
"You have like one hundred."  
'I don't have that many pictures of Luke.' Ashton repeats. Calum shrugs.  
"Have you told him about the other night yet or are you still lying to him?" Calum suddenly asks.  
'I'm not lying to him.'  
"Valerie Greene. Seriously? Ex-girlfriend my ass. She almost made Michael infertile last year when she kicked him in the nuts."  
'Michael told you about that, huh?'   
"Michael tells me everything."  
'Not saying that you've lied to him before, but, do you tell _him_ everything?' Calum doesn't reply immediately, but nods. "Of course." Ashton sighs, leaning back in his chair.  
'Cal, we're a bunch of liars.'

~

Now that Calum is somewhat capable of moving his arm without getting pain in his torso, Luke, Michael, Calum and Ashton decide to try to come up with a legit band name before making a cover. "My Chemical Anal." Is the first thing Michael says.  
"WHY" Luke and Calum say in unision, making Michael laugh.  
"I think we should stick with the name I came up with. The Juice Boxers."  
"No." Luke said bluntly. Calum's getting frustrated now, biting his lip.

"Why is this so stressful?" He gasps. "Why are we doing this now? We should wait till the summer or something."  
"We'll run out of time." Michael begins. "The summer only lasts like, 5 seconds." The boys go silent. Michael jumps up. "HOLY shIT." Michael claps his hands together, making Ashton jump. "Listen to this, guys, listen, okay, listen." Michael clears his throat and holds his arms out. "Get this. 5 Seconds of Summer." Ashton slow claps, and Luke nods as Calum cheers.  
"Alright, alright, bow down, bow down." Michael grins. Calum fakes a bow, and mumbles a high pitched _"your majesty."_

Finally, they came up with a band name they all liked, and now they were somewhat ready to play. (Harry requested Teenage Dirtbag) so they played it for him, and Calum ended up improvising because he didn't know the words.

At one point Michael _demanded_ a break, so they made themselves a bag of popcorn and threw in Mean Girls. Everything was going well until Luke says, "What did I really say?" Michael pauses the movie. "When?' Michael lies. They all knew what he was talking about.  
"When I was drunk. I know for damn sure I didn't talk about Valerie Greene. She broke my glasses in second grade." Calum looks at Ashton, at Luke then back again. Ashton shakes his head.   
'You said that...' Ashton shook his head. 'You said your parents died in an accident and you lived with your aunt.' Luke stares at him and forces a laugh as he looks down at his hands.   
"You weren't supposed to know that." Luke forces out. He looks pale now.  
"I don't get why you'd lie about that." Michael says softly.  
  


"That's not the only thing he's lying about." Calum says, immediately regretting it because he thought he was thinking it. "What?" Michael says. Luke's face drops as he glares at Calum.   
"It's nothing." Luke tries.  
'No, come on. What is he talking about?' Ashton asks. Luke sighs, hiding his face in his hands.  
"Tell us or get out." Michael demands. Luke sighs again, messing with his lip ring.  
"When we were in Hollywood, you kissed me." Luke says slowly.  
"I what?" Luke interrupts Michael before he can finish.  
"You were drunk and you didn't know what you were doing. I-it didn't mean anything." Ashton's laughing now, and Luke's getting a little scared because it's an angry laugh. 'I think it would've been nice to know that you made out with my brother before I kissed you.'  
"We didn't make out!" Luke yells.

"What are you doing now, going for Calum?" Michael scoffs. "Get this, Hemmings goes through the Irwin brothers one by one." Luke's face turns red.  
"You kissed me! I didn't want to kiss you!" Luke yells as Calum's puts his head in his hands. Michael stands up now, trying to match Luke's height. "You should go." It was an order, not a suggestion. Luke doesn't think twice before leaving the house angrily, doing his best to keep his middle fingers to himself as he makes his way home.

Of course it started pouring that night.

 


	21. Alright Luke Hemmings, You Win This Round

**From Luke, to Ashton, 9:57 PM:** Ashton?  
  
 **From Luke, to Ashton, 10:45 PM:** Ash, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about what happened between me and Michael. It didn't mean anything.

 **From Luke, to Ashton, 3:30 AM:** I'm so sorry Ashton, please.

"Don't ignore him." A voice says. Ashton looks up from the bright screen of his phone. Calum is rested against the door frame, clutching his side. "It's not his fault."   
'What are you doing? It's three in the morning.' Ashton signs.  
"Couldn't sleep." Calum says calmly as he sits on Ashton's bed.

'He lied to me.' Ashton signs.  
"No he didn't. He's _never_ lied to you." Calum reasurres.  
'Yeah, what about his parents?'  
"He had the right to lie to us about that." Calum looks at his hands.  
'No he didn't.'  
"Ashton, stop being fucking selfish." Calum snaps. Ashton frowns, holding his head in shame. "Look, I ignored Michael for a while when we were back at the foster home. Ashton, he got so angry and upset at the same time, it wasn't pretty. But in the end we made up, and things got _better_. I mean, things got a lot better than we expected." Calum shoots Ashton a wide smile. "He's apologizing for something  that he doesn't have to apologize for. So what he lied to you? Let it go, Ash." Calum pauses. Ashton saw it coming.

"Let it go! Let it go! Can't hold it back-"  
"CALUM I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD IF YOU DON'T SHUT THE HELL UP RIGHT NOW I'M GONNA SLIT YOUR KNEE CAPS AND SEND YOU TO ANTARTICA, BUILD A FUCKING SNOWMAN THERE YOU LITTLE-"Michael's voice yells over Calum's from the other room, making the two boys jump.  
"MICHAEL GORDON CLIFFORD YOU WATCH YOUR MOUTH!" their mother calls from the other room. "TELL CALUM TO SHUT UP!"  
"IT'S THREE IN THE MORNING!' Harry screeches.

Ashton and Calum are giggling quietly now as their family continues on, and Ashton smiles a little more. 'I'll fix it.' Ashton signs.  
"You better, Luke's a damn good singer." Calum laughs.

~

Ashton bangs on the door quickly, and he's not surprised to see Luke answer it. His hair's a mess, and he's wearing some old tank top with multiple holes in it. He stares at Ashton for a second, and smiles nervously. "Hey," he says.  
'Hey.' Ashton signs. Ashton looks down at his feet now, and Luke just holds the door open silently.' 'I'm sorry about what happened.' Ashton finally signs. Luke nods, and he's not sure whether Ashton saw him or not so he says, "Do you want to come in?" Ashton enters, smiling up at Luke.

They sit on the couch in front of the large television. Ashton spots Luke's guitar beside it, along with an annoyingly green notebook beside it. "I thought you'd be mad at me for at least a couple of days." Luke mumbles. Ashton shrugs. 'Calum talked some sense into me.' He signs with a sigh. The room goes silent again. "You're honestly so hormonal, Ashton." Luke laughs, leaning back and throwing his arm behind Ashton's shoulders. Ashton laughs, cuddling against Luke.

'Sorry I didn't tell you about you getting drunk.' Ashton finally signs.  
"Sorry I didn't tell you about Michael." Luke replies. They both let out a long sigh. "I'm glad to know you care."  
'What?'  
"It's three in the morning, Ash."  
'Oh, sorry. Did I wake you up?'  
"Couldn't sleep knowing you were mad at me."  
'Luke, you're so whipped.' Luke laughs before noticing that Ashton's eying the frustratingly spiral green notebook in the corner, and Luke stands up and grabs it.

"I write songs in here." He states as he opens it up. "All my songs since first grade are in here." That explains why it looks so torn and beat up, and why there looks like someone spill orange juice on it. 'Singer, songwriter, guitarist, what else can you do?' Ashton taunts. Luke sticks his tongue out at him, handing him the notebook. Ashton begins to read through it, a wide smile on his face. At the end of every song, there's Luke's signature, and each page it looks different, even though it's written the same. "Ignore the shitty handwriting, Ash." Luke smiles. Ashton runs his fingers over the pages, still smiling.

"Lu..."  Ashton tries aloud. They both freeze. Luke's staring at Ashton wide eyed, and Ashton's still staring at the page full of lyrics. "Did you...?" Luke begins.  
'I don't know.' Ashton signs. 'I guess.'  
"Have you tried talking before?" Luke asks, turning to face Ashton.   
'I-Of course, but, nothing comes out whenever I tried.'  
"But Ash, you almost said my name." Ashton shrugs.  
'I didn't do that on purpose.'  
"Can you try again for me, please?" Ashton sighs, placing the notebook beside him.   
"Lu..." Ashton begins. He's hesitating now, but his body just won't work with him. _Two letters._ All he needed to do was form two more letters and he'd have it. Ashton shakes his head, biting his lip. "Ashton, you understand that this is progress, right?" There's excitement in Luke's voice. Ashton smiles, because boy was Luke happy.

**A/N: I just needed Lasthon. That's all I needed. Maybe they'll do the frick frack (hint hint, nudge nudge, wink wink) I mean I don't knowwww :P Alright, I'm so tired and stuff so here's a short and crappy little chapter. Love ya!'~Blue**


	22. How To Kill A Famous Person For Dummies

Luke and Ashton didn't bother to go to sleep because they had to get to school by 7:15. Calum had called and said he and Michael would be over sometime before seven, and Ashton could hear Michael's loud protests in the background. Luke was ready to tell Cal about Ashton _almost_ talking, but Ashton advised against it, because he didn't want to be overwhelmed. Luke agreed to keep it to himself reluctantly, because he was kind of tired of keeping secrets.

"Another day with Josh," Luke begins. "Fantastic!"  
'I think he'll stay away from us. Michael like, broke his nose.' Ashton signs before placing his binder in his backpack. "I wonder what he'll do to me." Ashton shrugs.   
'He won't do anything.' Ashton reasurres. 'I think he knows better.'

~  
"Do you ever hate being wrong?" Luke asks quietly during lunch. Calum's stuffing his face with almonds, and Ashton's watching intently as Michael and Josh go at it silently across the cafeteria. Michael was sat beside Calum, with Luke and Ashton at the table farthest in the corner. Josh's table was on the other side of the enormous room.

Calum's giggling as they send signs to each other, such as middle fingers and at one point, Michael picked up a straw and mouthed, _"Here's a straw so you can suck my ass."_ and Calum lost his shit, almost choking on his almonds. "Michael, this is really stupid." Luke mumbles. Michael whips around and stares at Luke, and says with a shaky voice, "I have to get him back."

What Michael means by get him back is Josh had somehow found a way to put a dangerously large amount of Nair into Michael's shampoo that morning before him and Cal had left the house. Michael was lucky he knew the smell of Nair, because after he smelled it, he stepped out of the shower, ass out and face red, yelling at Calum. After Calum had convinced him that he didn't put the Nair there, he automatically knew it was Josh.

"And how are you gonna do that?" Luke whispers. Michael smirks, claps his hands and bangs them against the table before climbing onto it. Everyone goes silent, drawing their attention to Michael. "This is gonna be intense." Calum says, of course, stuffing more almonds in his mouth. Ashton's about to get up and leave now, because he's tired of Michael's shit.

"What are you doing?" Josh calls from his table. He looks really stupid with that bandage on his nose. "Nothing, what are you doing?" Michael says in a high pitched voice, tapping the tips of his combat boots on the table. "Alright sweetheart, get down before you hurt yourself." Josh taunts. Only his friends laugh. "No, shut up, sugarplump." Michael shoots back. A few people laugh, but go silent when Josh gives them death glares. "Alright you no-homosapiens," he points at Josh's friends specifically. "Sebastian, Josh kicked your ass in freshman year. We all know it, we all saw it. Why are you his little bitch now?" Michael holds his hands up and shrugs with a _just saying_ kind of look. "You're scared of him, right?"  
"No." Sebastian says quietly.  
"Lying is bad!" Michael squeals. Luke's pulling at the bottom of Michael's pants now.  
"Get down."  
"No!" Michael whisper yells.

"Mean Girls!" Michael points at a group of girls at the table across from theres. "Tiffany!!!!!" Michael waves his hand, his voice going at least three octaves higher. "Sophmore year, we all know it for a _fact_ that you only fucked Josh for his huge dick, right?" People laugh, and Tiffany's blushing now. "Well I bet that rumour was wrong, huh?" Michael whispers loudly. More people laugh.

"You would know, fag." Josh tries.   
"Sorry you wonderfully illiterate fuck, a fag is a cigarette." Michael pauses. "Wait, wait, I am a fag. 'Cause my ass is smoking hot, isn't it?" Michael waves his bum at Josh. "You would know, huh?" Michael taunts. Luke's laughing now, and Calum's clutching his stomach as Ashton covers his face with his hands. "Okay, okay, raise your hand if Josh has ever offended you, hurt your feelings, or at least made you feel inferior in any way." No one raises their hands. "Oh, come on loves, don't be scared."

There's a long silence before Ashton raises his hands hesitantly, and soon after Luke raises his hand. Calum's hand shoots up as he glares at Josh, popping an almond in his mouth. More people begin to raise their hand, and soon, everyone in that cafeteria's hand is up except for Michael's, Josh's and Josh's clique. Michael throws both hands in the air, and Sebastian raises his hand as well. Josh is the only one in the room without his hand up.

"Majority rules, Josh." Michael begins with the widest grin Ashton has ever seen. "Big dicks don't count if 3/4 of it is in your personality."

Basically, everyone lost their shit then and there, and the cafeteria is filled with laughter. At one point  Josh had hopped up from his seat, grabbed Michael's legs and pulled him off the table. Michael slammed his head against it, hitting the cold floor with a loud groan. Calum's standing up now on top of the table, and he runs over to Josh and jumps on his back. He's stuffing almonds into Josh's mouth, screaming "FUCKINGALMONDSBITCH!" Ashton had fallen out of his seat, and was crawling towards Michael as the cafeteria became an uproar. People were screaming and yelling and throwing things. Luke was crouching beside Michael, pulling at his own hair because someone had thrown pizza in his hair.

Michael's making some sort of frustrated squealing noise, because he _really_ wanted to fight Josh again, but the back of his head was bleeding. Calum had run out of almonds, and his height is so much shorter than Josh's so all he can do is kick him in the shins with all his might. "GETHIMCALUM!!!" Michael's screaming, and Luke's yelling,  
"SHUT UP. SHUT. UP." Into Michael's ear.

A whistle goes off and everyone freezes, because they all knew it was Mr. Masorti, and Mr. Masorti doesn't blow the whistle unless he's angry, and Mr. Masorti _doesn't get angry._ In a flash everyone is back in their seats, leaving the four boys and Josh out in the open, Calum's in a mid-kicking motion against Josh's shins, Ashton's sitting in his seat, looking up at the lights on the ceiling, Luke's playing with his phone now, and Michael's curled up into a little ball in the fetal position, groaning as he clutches the back of his head.

"Dude," Calum begins quietly. "We're gonna get suspended again." Ashton accidentally laughs, and he doesn't know why, because it wasn't THAT funny, but he had laughed, and that caused Mr. Masorti to flip his shit as he began to yell frantically, waving his hands around. That's when Luke's phone starts playing music, which he did on accident, and he quickly turns down the volume as Michael begins to giggle from where he's lying on the floor. Then Ashton's laughing again, and so is Calum, and Luke's doing his best not to laugh, but sounds our slipping from his lips as short hiccups and giggles.

They got suspended again.

**A/N: WHY IS A FILLER LONGER THAN MY OTHER CHAPTERS?! Idk i had fun writing this, but I guess this shows Josh will be THE FUCK out of here because the boys embarrassed him so much. Okay, loves you lots~Blue**


	23. Tongue Tied Over Three Words, Cursed

"You do understand that you'll be expelled next time." Their mum begins. Michael scoffs, waving with his free hand because he's using the other to press an icepack against the back of his head. "There won't be a next time." he says.

"You said that last time." she sounds annoyed.

"No, no, but we mean it." Michael glances at Calum, Ashton and Luke, and they're all looking around aimlessly. "I just had to finish something that started a _long_ time ago." he says with a grin. "Also, I need to run to the store and buy more shampoo."

~

"Michael, that was incredible, I must admit." Luke mumbles. They're at the playground again. Calum and Michael are sitting on the swings, and Ashton and Luke are sitting on the bottom of the slide, Ashton in Luke's lap. Ashton claps, and Calum's laughing now. "Dude, those fucking almonds were so useful." Calum laughs.

"Yeah, and Mr. Masorti was so angry..." Michael says with a grin. "I've never seen him so angry before."

"Literally, I don't think Josh'll be bothering anyone anymore." Luke adds. The boys go silent after that.

"Mikey," Calum begins. "I think I'm gonna get a job." Everyone looks at Calum.

"Why?" Michael asks.

"You really need that new guitar."

"I'll use the old one."

"You said it was shitty. You don't wanna use it."

"It's just out of tune, I can fix that."

"I'm gonna get you that new guitar."

"I'm fine with using the old one."

The truth is, that old guitar was Calum's. He gave it to Michael when they were in the foster home, and Michael _never_ played it, because he was so scared he'd ruin it somehow. The only reason he said it was shitty was to try and get Calum out of the thought that they could start a band, but it didn't work. It's not that Michael couldn't play the guitar, it's just he didn't want to.

"Fine." Michael suddenly says. "Do whatever you want." They can hear the frustration in his voice.

~

Ashton doesn't know why the thought pops into his head, but has he ever told Luke he love him? Sure, they've said it to each other, but they're usually playing around and taunting each other. At one point Luke had said, "I love you." and Ashton had replied with, 'Me too.' So that was a joke. So he starts thinking about saying "I love you" to Luke. And he means, _really_ say "I love you." He just needs to figure out how to do that.

He started to say Luke's name at his house, so whats so different about saying three little words? Ashton finds himself in his room, staring at himself in the mirror. He's trying to form a word, but nothing's coming out, and it's becoming incredibly frustrating incredibly fast. At one point Ashton just screams at the top of his lungs until his face is red and Michael and Calum are in the room.

Who knows when Ashton started crying, because Michael was hugging him tightly now, and Ashton was sobbing into his chest. Calum joins the hug, and he's rubbing Ashton's back gently. Ashton's gripping Michael's shirt now, and Ashton's suddenly really tired. He just wants to sleep. He doesn't know what he was thinking. He can't talk. Get over it. That's what he's been telling himself.

Ashton blindly walks over to his bed and has a seat, pulling at his hair. "Ashton, what happened?" Michael tries. Ashton doesn't respond, so he just curls into a ball and tries to sleep. He just wants to sleep, and he just wants Michael and Calum to leave and he also just wants to _talk,_ but not everyone gets what the want, do they?

So Michael and Calum reluctantly leave, and Ashton falls asleep, and he dreams that he never met Luke, and that Michael and Calum were never adopted, and that his parents never separated, and Ashton never learned how to play the drums, and he wakes up with a jolt, letting out some sort of sigh of relief because he's still in his room, his drums are still in the corner, and Michael and Calum are still playing guitar downstairs, and there's still a missed text from Luke Hemmings.

_And Ashton Irwin still can't talk._

He slides off of his bed, grabbing his phone in the proccess and makes his way down stairs. Michael's singing loudly as Calum plays the guitar, giggling. It took a moment for Ashton to figure out what the lyrics were. "Luke Hemmingssss wantss to have sexxx with myy brotherrrr." Ashton kind of laughs, his face turning red. Michael suddenly flies off the couch when he's hit by an apple, and Luke's voice is yelling from the kitchen. "I DO NOT WANT TO HAVE SEX WITH YOUR BROTHER!" Calum's laughing so hard he has to put the guitar down and cover his face with a pillow. Ashton makes his way into the kitchen and dodges the apple Michael chugs at Luke.

"Oh," Michael begins with a huff. "Hey Ash. Luke's here."

'I can tell.' Ashton wanted to sign, but he didn't. He just kept his hands in his pockets and nodded.

"What's up?" Luke says with a smile as he picks up the apple. It's all bruised and nasty now. Ashton shrugs as he opens the fridge, looking around aimlessly. "We were going to practice today but Michael started singing songs about sex." Calum calls from the couch.

"I was preaching the truth." Michael nods at Luke then dry humps the air.

"Shut up!" Luke yells, picking up a metal spoon and chugging it at him. It hits Michael in the forehead and he hits the ground with a thud. "What is up with you and throwing objects?!" Calum yells with a loud laugh.

"Hey," Luke begins into Ashton's ear. Ashton looks up at him, trying to hide the frown that was forming. "Are you okay?" Ashton nods, forcing a smile. "No, Ashton, seriously, what's wrong." Ashton shakes his head, closing the fridge. "Can you talk, please?" Ashton stops, and glares at him, because _no,_ he couldn't talk. "Okay, I didn't mean it like that." Luke begins, and Michael and Calum are looking up at them now. Ashton scoffs before turning around and leaving, slamming the door behind him.


	24. Maybe It Was Meant To Be This Way

Luke finds Ashton at the meadow, his back turned to the hill Luke had to stumble down to reach him. Ashton was looking up at the sun set, and the wind was blowing his hair back a little. "Ashton," Luke begins. Ashton doesn't turn around. Luke sits down beside him, pulling at one of his hands. "I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean-" Ashton shakes his hand out of Luke's and looks at him closely.   
'Why do you love me?' he signs. The question takes Luke by surprise, and he stares at Ashton for a moment. "I can't explain why I... love you." Luke says slowly. Ashton cocks his head to the side, frowning a bit. 'Why does anyone love me?' he continues. 'I'm such a burden.' Ashton starts crying again, silently, and slowly, but he was crying.

Luke moves his whole body to face Ashton, and he snatches Ashton's hands into his.  "Ashton, please don't think like that, please don't cry, my little sunshine." Luke hugs Ashton tightly, letting the boy cry. "I love you because of your little smile, and your sarcasm, and all the words that you can _say._ Whether I can hear them or not." Ashton pushes away from Luke, rubbing his eyes with the sleeves of his hoodies. 'But I can't talk, Luke. You'll never hear my voice because I don't have one.'

"That's not true, you started to talk at my house." Luke tries gently. Ashton shakes his head, because that was just a little flame of hope that went out the moment Ashton realised it wasn't worth it. Ashton rested his head in his knees, because he was tired again, and he felt like he was going to black out, because this feeling of hopelessness inside him felt terrible. He felt Luke put his arm around his shoulders and pulled him closer, and Ashton wanted to cry again, but he was out of tears, just like he was out of words.

~

Do you know that feeling where you can't even get out of bed because you're not just physically tired, you're mentally tired as well? Well, it feels like Ashton isn't even alive right now. He's lying on his back, staring at the spinning ceiling fan as he struggles to breathe. Ashton doesn't know why he can't breathe right now. Maybe it's his last resort because he can't even cry anymore, or maybe this one thought he just had triggered a panic attack.

Maybe it was that.

That thought, it was a horrible one. Ashton's shaking, clutching his curly hair as he tries so desperately to breathe, to scream _,_ tojust _die._ Ashton has never felt like this before, and he's scaring himself, and he needs someone, _anyone_ to help him. Ashton can't even scream right now, and some sort of wave of relief rushes through him when Calum opens the door, gasping in alarm as he hurries to Ashton's bed.

"Ashton!" Calum says quickly, lifting Ashton up and sitting behind him. Ashton throws his head back as he gasps for breath, and he's there's a fistful of Calum's shirt in his hands. "Ashton, calm down, okay, look at me," Ashton stares at Calum, trying to calm down, but his heart races faster, and now Ashton is more afraid than ever. "It's okay. Please, Ashton, calm down." Calum turns to look at the open door and yells, "Mum! Michael!"

Ashton's so dizzy now, and it feels like he's dying (but certainty he's not), but somehow, the feeling feels good. And then suddenly Ashton's starting to calm down again. It's easier to breathe now, and Ashton rests his head on Calum's chest. He can hear Calum's heart beating, and Ashton must've scared him pretty badly.

For some reason Ashton gets a perfect nights sleep.

~

'I'm going to break up with Luke.' Ashton signs. Michael looks up from his phone.  
"What was that?" he asks slowly. All he saw was break up.  
'I'll break up with Luke tomorrow.'  
"What, why?"  
'I don't want him to see me so, broken up.'   
"What?"  
'I'm not doing well, Mikey.'  Michael sighs, placing his phone beside him.  
"You do understand he loves you, right?" Michael says sternly. Ashton nods. "And you love him." Ashton nods again. "Then why would you want to seperate? I don't understand that."

'You wouldn't understand.' Ashton signs.  
"I've done drugs, been arrested, shot, had sex for money and been sent to a foster home. I don't think anything going on could be much worse." Michael says. Ashton hated when people did that, but Michael did have a point.

Ashton was being selfish again, wasn't he? He didn't want to break up with Luke, but he had to. Maybe it was meant to be this way.


	25. You're Such A Dumb Fuck, You Need To Shut Up

**From Ashton:** We need to talk... meet at the park?

 **From Luke:** Talk about what?

 **From Ashton:** Just something about us, I guess.

 **From Luke:** Oh, okay.

And now Luke's incredibly scared. Because something about _us_ didn't sound right at all. Ashton was being so vague, and Ashton hated vagueness and Luke knew that. He grabs his vans and slips them on as he stumbles out the door, yelling to his aunt that he'd be back soon.

Luke can see the park in the distance, and Ashton's sitting on the swing set, playing with his torn black jeans. Luke quickens his pace and sits down beside him silently, making Ashton look up at him. "What did you want to talk about?" Luke asks at one point. Ashton shrugs, because he's nervous again, and he wants to change his mind, and pretend nothing was going to happen.

Ashton shrugs and bites his lip, and raises his hands to sign. Luke's staring at him closely, and biting his lip too. 'I need a break.' is all Ashton can manage. Luke cocks his head to the side.

"What do you mean by that?" Luke beigns, lowering his voice. "A break from me?" Ashton stares at him, because the way Luke said it made it sound so, _bad_ and Ashton started to feel guilty. 'I'm not doing too good, y'know?'

"You're breaking up with me, aren't you?"

Ashton see's Luke's about to cry, but instead he smiles. "It's okay, yeah?" He messes with his hair, pushing himself back on the swing, making it move back a little. "Because I will always love you and you'll come crawling back in no time." Ashton laughs a little.

'No you'll come crawling back.' Ashton signs as he begins to push himself on the swing as well Luke's smiling again. "We're not through, it's just a little break. Breaks don't last long, right?"

'Yeah, breaks don't last long.'

~

"I give it two weeks." Michael mumbles as Luke and Ashton can be seen in the distance, walking towards the house. "Nah, I give it three days." Calum whispers.

"I give it one." Their mum says. Michael and Calum look at her and laugh.

"No way." Michael huffs.

"They'll get back together but not in _one day._ " Calum adds.

"Oh yes they will."

"Bet, fifty quid." Michael grins.

"Michael! You're not supposed to gamble with your mother!" Calum laughs.

"Sixty." Their mum pushes. Calum looks at her, gaping.

"Seventy!" Calum says. "If they get back together in three days, both of you owe me seventy quid."

"I'm betting two weeks." Michael claps his hands together.

"One day." Their mum smiles, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Deal." Calum grins.

"Deal?" Luke repeats. They all look at the front door, they haven't even noticed Ashton and Luke had gotten so close to the house. "DEAL OR NO DEAL!!!!" Michael screams and walks towards the nonexistant television. "It's supposed to be on right now." Calum adds. They walk suspiciously upstairs, and Ashton glances at his mum, who had somehow made it into the kitchen and started cooking in .2 seconds.

~

"Luke, it's one, on a saturday, and I am very tired, and very pissed off now." Michael mumbles into the phone. "HOW DO I GET ASHTON BACK?" Luke replies loudly, and Michael is forced to pull the phone from his ear. "What?"

"I want him back."

"You're so whipped dude." Michael laughs, rubbing his eyes.

"Michael!"

"Luke, he didn't break up with you because you did something wrong, you know that right?" Michael says slowly. "Then why'd he-?"

"Luke you oblivious little fuck." Michael yawns, leaning back against his bed frame. "Ashton needs space just like everyone else. He loves you like, alot. More than alot. He was too scared to tell you that he needed a bit a space is all."

"So we'll be back together?"

"Your white ass better get back with my brother I bet seventy quid on-"

"Huh?"

"Luke, you're such a dumb fuck."  
"Michael..."  
"Goodnight"

~

"Seventy quid, boys!" their mum yells as they come down the stairs after getting dressed. Ashton looks at Micahel in confusion and he laughs nervously. " _Seventy quid,"_ Calum mouths at his mum as they head towards the front door. She raises an eyebrow and scoffs. 'Seventy quid for what?' Ashton signs. "FIFA" Calum tries while Michael says "Deal or no deal"  
'I thought FIFA ended.'  
"He meant deal or no deal." Michael smile innocently.  
'How do you get those two mixed up?'  
"Oh look! It's friends with benefits!" Michael yells, pointing at Luke as he approached their front door.

Calum opens it. "What a surprise." He says sarcastically. "We were just about to leave. Come along, Lukey Poo." Calum grips his arm and drags him along, Michael and Ashton behind them.

**A/N: I'M SLACKING I KNOW ughhh I just have to go to some stupid family reunion today and poop. POOP. I'll try to post again, but I'll probably post another chapter of Laces instead so :P Love you guuyssss~Blue**


	26. CHARACTER ASKSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alright guys, I reread this story at least five times (when I'm bored, nothing on my tumblr dashboard, and when I will do everything to procrastinate homework I will reread my own story and criticize myself and be like okay what the fuck is with this chapter)

Anyways this can get confusing right? Or is it just me? So here's a chance to ask away! It'll be quite embarrassing if no one does this lol okay. This is how this works. Go in the comments and ask a question about a certain character, event, or the entire book. Example: Question is for Ashton: blah blah blah. Then I'll answer it in one of the next chapters in the perspective of the character that you're asking about.

**Questions about Ashton**

**Questions about Luke**

**Questions about Michael**

**Questions about Calum**

**Questions about Ashton's dad**

**Questions about Harry**

**Questions about Josh**

**Questions about Ashton's mum**

**Questions in general**

I'm so sorry if you thought this was an update XD but I PROMISE I will post a chapter today. (every Sunday my friends come over at 1 till 7) okay love you~ Blue


	27. Say Something Ashton

Calum, Michael and their mum were arguing upstairs. It didn't sound like a serious arguement, more like a "I fucking called it" kind of arguement, so Ashton was forced to leave, because he didn't want to hear about what they were fighting over. He ended up on Luke's front porch. It's only been a day and he just can't stay away.

Ashton thought he'd be able to stay away for at least a month. It only took him a day. Luke somehow knew that Ashton couldn't stay away for long, and as if on que he opens the door to see Ashton standing there. "Oh," Luke begins. "Ash," Luke smiles, and Ashton smiles back. "I was just about to go meet Michael and Calum at the cafe. Come on in." Ashton walks into the house with a nod, and immediately heads up to Luke's room (even though he's only been in the house once, he figured Luke's room was the only room with a bunch of drawings and doodles on the door in crayon.)

Ashton sits on the bed, Luke beside him. "What's up?" Luke asks. Ashton shrugs, biting his nails. "I told you breaks didn't last long." Luke smiles, and Ashton chuckles a bit. Yeah, he was right. Ashton felt weird not being with him. Ashton opens his mouth, but shakes his head, because he wasn't trying _that_ again. "By the way, I got you something." Luke stands up and starts to go through his messy closet, glancing at Ashton in embarressment when a pile of clothes land on him.

After a moment Luke turns around with a camera in his hand. Ashton immediately hops up, making his way towards Luke as he takes the camera from him gently. Ashton's face is red, and his eyes are wide with excitement. "You told me your old camera broke, and cell phones can only have so much space on them." Ashton has to stand on the tips of his toes to hug Luke, and Luke almost immediately hugs him back.

Now Ashton stands back, his hands close to his mouth as he stares at Luke closely.

_And now he was going to try it._

Ashton takes a deep breath and gulps, ruffling with his hair quickly before putting his hands back to his side. "I..." And Ashton scares both himself and Luke, because Ashton didn't think he'd be able to say I, and Luke didn't think he'd even _try_ talking at all. "Ash," Luke begins. Ashton hushes him, biting his lip in frustration and glaring at him, as if to say " _I got this."_

Ashton takes another deep breath, biting his nails. "I..." his voice is slow and deep, and he doesn't know why this is such a struggle. "Lo-ve... you." Luke lets out some sort of laugh of disbelief, and Ashton looks up to see he's crying now. Before Ashton can even think, Luke's engulfed him into a tight hug, snuggling his head into Ashton's shoulder. "I love you too, Ashton. I love you so much." Ashton hugs him tightly back, smiling.

~

Luke walks home with Ashton and they get to his house (after relaxing at the meadow for about two hours) around three in the afternoon. When they start walking up the driveway, Michael, Calum and their mum come rushing out. "ARE YOU GUYS BACK TOGETHER?" they all scream in unison, and Luke laughs. "Ash, are we back together?" Luke looks down at the boy, and he nods with a grin. Ashton's mother cheers, while Michaels biting his tongue to avoid swearing in front of his mum. Calum's already pulled out his wallet and going through his money. "Mothers know best." she grins as they hand her seventy quid each. "Don't gamble with this woman." Michael warns. "You will lose." and Ashton and Luke laugh, because neither of them can believe that this was Ashton's family.

They were not-so-civil civilized people, y'know? Like the way Michael handled Josh (now that was funny) that was civilized before Josh dragged Michael's white ass off the table and started a cafeteria brawl. To be honest, that's probably the most "civil" Michael has ever been while handling those kind of situations.

Ashton doesn't care, they're his family, and he's so grateful for that. They might not have been the best influences in their earlier years (just the other day Harry asked what it was like for Michael to be fourteen and Michael began in the most serious voice ever, " _when I was your age-"_ and everyone started yelling at what a terrible joke Michael was about to make) but they're different now. Ashton's actually glad he accidentally knocked the cookie out of Calum's hand three years ago and caused Michael to pop out of nowhere and yell at him. That's what grabbed their mums attention at the foster home.

Maybe Michael and Calum are the reason Luke and Ashton met. They were friends with Luke beforehand, but would it make much of a difference without them? Surely it would. They never would've gone to America, or started that stupid band, or gone to that amazing meadow. A sequence of events that started just three years before caused all this love.

Amazing.

**A/N: wow wow ow wow THE AMOUNT OF READS AND VOTES AND COMMENTS AND YAY I love you guys so much. Oh, Ashton talked. JESUS HAS SPOKEN. Yay. Well I don't think there'll be more than 40-45 chapters of this, because I really wanna post Chasing the clouds! I have like 5 chapters ready for you guys. Okay, I love you as much as Ashton loves Luke~Blue**


	28. This Chapter Is All About Lashton, Duh!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sup! Blue here. Just a quick reminder, my wattpad is Purpleforest516, and the entire story of SSFDE (Sang Songs For Deaf Ears) is already published there, so if you're tired of waiting for me to copy and paste each chapter, hop on over to my wattpad. Also, I have more stories on my wattpad. Heart Eyes (Ziall) is on there too, along with The Runaways (Lashton and Malum) so yeah. Just thought I'd remind you guys! Thanks for reading.~Blue

'I'm not going to speech therapy or anything like that.' Ashton signs. Luke nods from where he's sitting on the floor.   
"You don't have to do anything you don't want to." Luke replies.  
'Yeah, I think that'll be the only time I'll try to talk.' Ashton leans back against the wall. 'For now, that is. I don't want to push it, and Cal and Michael can be...'  
"Overwhelming." Luke added.  
'Very overwhelming.' Ashton laughed.

"Anyways, Cal ordered us to practice, so let's practice." Luke hops up, grabbing his guitar case from where it sat by the door.   
'Practice what, specifically?" Ashton signs when Luke glances at him.  
"He really wants to get this band thing started. What was our name?"  
'5 minutes of sex or something along those lines.' Ashton signs. Luke bites his lip.  
"Nah, I'm pretty sure it wasn't that. Michael might've come up with the name, but I'm sure he didn't involve sex this time. Whatever! You and I are totally in a band that we totally can't remember the name of."  
'That's terrible of us.'  
"It is terrible of us! We can't remember the name of our bloody band!"

'You're the lead too.' Ashton signs. Luke makes some sort of weird "heh?" noise, hunching over a little bit.   
"I'm the what?" Luke stares at Ashton.  
'Oh, did we not go over this?' Ashton asks. Luke shakes his head. 'I swear we went over this. Nevermind, I thought we went over this in my head. You're the lead singer, Luke!'  
"Fan-fucking-tastic!" Luke laughs, taking the guitar out of the case.

He see's that Ashton hasn't moved from his spot on the bed, and Luke has to nod towards the drum set in the corner. "Aren't you going to, y'know?" Luke air drums as Ashton laughs.  
'I don't need to practice that.' Ashton reassures.  
"Why's that?"  
'Uh, because I'm an awesome fucking drummer. I can't go too far above you guys' level!' Luke laughs at Ashton's cockiness before plopping himself onto the floor against the bed.

'You have to sing and play for me, Luke.' Ashton signs. Luke scoffs.  
"No I do not." Luke mumbles.  
'It took all my strength and soul to speak! I could've snapped my vocal chords because I was trying so hard to speak, Luke Hemmings!'  
"Okay, okay, whatever!" Luke mumbles, picking at the guitar strings. "What do you want me to sing?"  
'Whatever you want.' Ashton signs.

Luke sighs, then smiles. "Can I sing a love song?" Luke asks.  
'Don't be corny.' Ashton signs with a laugh.  
"I want to sing _you are my sunshine_ to you." Luke says.  
'Nooooo.' he signed multiple 'o's' and hid his face in his hands, laughing.  
"Nuh-uh-uh! The singer sings the song!"  
'Luke, it's such a corny song!'  
"I'm going to close my eyes!"  
'Lukeeeeee please don't it's too corny!'

" _You are my sunshine..."_ Luke grins as Ashton groans. _"My only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are gray._ " And Ashton's blushing furiously now, looking down at his feet. Luke pauses for a second to laugh a little, then continues the song, strumming the guitar loudly. _"Please don't take my sunshine away."_

And Luke and Ashton lean back and laugh at each other. Luke wraps his arm around Ashton and says, "I love you, you know that right?" Ashton nods.  
'I love you too.' he signs.

And then they kiss, and of course Calum walks in (man that boy had the worst timing) and Luke and Ashton take a minute to realise that Calum's giggling in the corner. "Pervert!" Luke yells, and Calum raised his hands in defense.   
'Cal, you have terrible timing.' Ashton signs.

"But you guys are like, so cute." Calum smiles.

"That doesn't mean you get to watch us kiss!" And Luke reaches for the guitar and prepares to throw it, but realises what he's about to do and Calum bursts into hysterics because Luke doesn't have anything to throw this time.

"I came to tell you dinners ready. Unless you already ate each other out." Calum taunts. Before Calum can react Luke's on his feet and chasing after him down the hall, and Ashton can't help but laugh.

**A/N: Let's pretend that after dinner Luke and Ashton frick frack. Sorry, I didn't feel like writing that part! UGH. Guys, there's only like three or four chapters left of this. Get ready for CTC and stuff!~ Blue P.S. I made some Instagram thing. I don't understand. WHAT. My instagram is itscaramel_duh**


	29. In That Moment I Swear, We Were Infinite

**A/N: Guys I'm sorry I lied I know I said there'd be like three or four chapters left, but there's only one chapter left after this one! I wanna keep writing but I can't keep this story going forever.**

"Ashton," Ashton hears a voice, and he looks around his room for a second. It's pitch black anyways, so what was the point of doing that. "Come on, do you know what day it is?" It's Calum's voice, Ashton decides, and he glances at his clock. December 22nd, 2014, midnight It's the anniversary of the day Michael and Calum were adopted into the family. Ashton sits up, and he can tell Calum's grinning widely.

"Come on, Ash, get up. We have to get Luke too." And now Calum's pulling at Ashton's arm. Where are they going? They do this every year, at midnight, on December 22nd, they go out somewhere. Somewhere where they're alone. Somewhere where no one can judge them for walking around in their pajamas. So Ashton slides off the bed and stumbles after Calum into Michael's room. They're not surprised to see him he's already awake and looking at his phone. He wasn't getting dressed. They had to stay in their pajamas. It's tradition.

Michael see's Ashton and grins. "Ready to get your boyfriend?" He asks, and Ashton's not really processing everything these boys are saying, because it's very early and Ashton is very tired. Michael snatches up Ashton and suddenly Ashton's on Michael's back.

It's whatever.

_They do this every year._

It was so much easier for Michael to carry Ashton back then, but it's tradition. You're not supposed to change tradition.

And now they're walking down the dark street, singing _Hey There Delilah_. Because that was the song that Ashton was playing outside the foster home when Calum and Michael came along. Ashton knows Michael's going to drop him, eventually. Not on purpose, of course, but it happens every year. Luke's house comes into view and Calum runs ahead like he always does.

He knocks on the door with excitement, realises that it's midnight, and results in clinging onto the side of Luke's house and climbing up. "Which room is it, Ash?" Cal calls, and Ashton tightens his grip on Michael so he can use his other hand to point. Calum bangs on the window, and a few seconds later the window opens.

"Can Lukey come outside to play?" Calum says in a high pitched voice. They hear Luke laugh, and then Calum's suddenly telling him to stay in his pajamas. "It's tradition." Calum states. Now Luke's following Calum down the roof carefully, and when they both jump (Calum had somehow jumped so far he landed on Michael and Ashton and the boys had to lay there for a second because they were laughing so hard) they begin to walk down the street aimlessy.

"Where are we going this year, Mikey?" Calum asked, rubbing his now bruised knee.  
"Wherever, Cal." Michael replies. "Got any ideas, Luke?"  
"I know this place," Luke begins with a grin. "It's imperial."   
"Oh," Michael begins playfully. "And where is this _imperial_ place?"  
"You have to keep up if you want to see it!" and Luke bursts off into a sprint, just like he had done those months ago when he and Ashton had just met.

And now the four boys are running. They're running _so fast_ and now they're feeling so free and alive and _inf_ _inite._ Ashton wished he could just stay like this forever, with these three other fuckers that made his life nine times better.

And now they were running down the hill towards the meadow. Calum had decided to roll, and he tripped Michael and Luke along the way. Michael snatched Ashton's shirt as they tumbled. They all landed hard on their stomachs, letting out some sort of laughing gasping sound.

Michael's on his back now, and he throws up his hands, yanking a few flowers up while he does it. " _Tonight, we are young!_ " he sings.  
" _So let's set the world on fire!"_ Calum joins, sitting up and singing at the top of his lungs.  
" _We can burn brighter!"_ Luke yells.

And suddenly adrenaline is pumping through Ashton's veins. He felt so confident and powerful, and suddenly he finds himself _singing along._ " _Than the sun!_ " And it felt so weird for Ashton to say that, to say _anything_ for that matter, and now Calum and Michael are cheering, and basically losing their shit when they hear their little brother speak. And Luke's smiling so much.

_He's smiling so, so much._

"Guys it's time to run." Calum says, glancing at his phone.  
"It's time to run?" Michael repeats.  
"It's time to run!"   
"We just ran!" Luke protests.  
"Luke's new to this, Mikey!" Calum laughs."We gotta run till we can't breathe."  
"Why?" Luke asks.  
"Because when we were running from Old Man Phelps three years ago Michael got shot in the ass because he thought we'd stop running to pick up a twenty dollar bill." Michael laughs in embarrassment as Calum explains.

The boys are running again, and now they're at Ashton's house again. They make their way into the basement, and now they're messing with the old toys Calum and Ashton had, and they don't care how stupid they look right now. Ashton plugs in his phone and starts playing Teenage Dirtbag full blast. He knows their mum won't come downstairs to complain. She knows how important this day is to Michael, Calum and Ashton.

" _I'm just a teenage dirtbag, baby!"_ Michael yell-sings. Luke and Ashton are dancing now, and Calum had found some weird inflatable saxophone. The musics blaring loudly and they're all being idiots.

"It's one!" Michael cheers.   
"Grab the poppers!" Calum orders Ashton, and in a split second Ashton's looking through a card board box and pulls out four poppers. "Do it now!" Michael laughs. And they all pull the poppers, letting out some sort of cheer afterwards.

"And Calum and Michael lived happily ever after." Michael says with a smile, giving Calum a sideways hug.

And this was Ashton's family.

**A/N: I'M DYING BECAUSE THERE'S ONLY ONE CHAPTER LEFT AFTER THIS AND I FEEL LIKE YOU GUYS WANT ME TO KEEP GOING JUST WAIT FOR CHASING THE CLOUDS THIS MAY BE THE END BUT YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE BEGINNING YET.**


	30. We'll Never Forget This, Right Boys?

**This is basically an epilogue.**

For some reason it feels like they've got such a terrible hangover. They didn't get drunk at all, but now they were all so tired and worn out. They had all slept on the small couch in the basement, and it was the most uncomfortable thing they could've possibly done.

But it was tradition.

"My ass hurts." Calum mumbles. "Ash, your leg was on my ass."

'Wasn't me." Ashton signs sloppily.

"What?" Calum can't read _anything_.

"I think that was me. I sat on your ass and fell asleep." Luke explains.

"Why would you-"

"Who's ass are we talking about?" Michael mumbles. His face is hidden in a pillow, and one of his legs is hanging off the couch. "Mine." Calum says.

"Someone fell asleep on my leg."

"That was Ash." Luke says.

"I'm so hungry." Calum mumbles.

"Why are we complaining so much?" Luke mumbles.'My head hurts.' Ashton signs.

"Go take a bath." Calum replies.

"What's that got to do with _anything?!_ " Michael yawns as he rolls of the couch.

'This is the aftermath of The Night Calum and Michael Joined Our Family Anniversary.' Ashton signs. "That's really what you call it?" Luke asks.

'We're idiots that can't get creative.'

~

Ashton's on his computer now, looking through all his pictures. He scrolls down the very first one he, Michael and Calum took together. Michael's hair is somewhat long and brown, and he's wearing a black beanie. He's standing behind Calum, putting gray beanie on Ashton's head as Calum laughs, moving the beanie he was wearing from covering his eyes. They're in front of Ashton's house, and this was about the third week they had been living with them.

Ashton can't help but smile. They're so different now. Harry's gotten older, Ashton's chances of talking have gone up _alot,_ and now they have Luke. They all have Luke. That's _so_ important.

Ashton continues to scroll through the pictures, and grins when he see's Michael standing in front of a parked bus, looking up at the sky with his hands on his hips. This was when they went to America. Suddenly there's a knock on the door, and Calum walks in with two plates in his hand.

"Lukey Poo made us breakfast." He says, placing the plate of eggs, bacon and pancakes beside Ashton's computer. Calum pops a strip of bacon into his mouth, and nearly chokes on it when he gasps. He points at one of the pictures on the screen,"Ilook desgufin!" He mumbles, wiping the drool that was forming around his lips. Ashton looks at him quizzically and waits for Calum to finish chewing. "I look disgusting!" Calum touches the picture of him and Michael on the screen. This picture was taken at the foster home, but Michael had just sent it to Ashton's phone because Ashton wanted to add it to his album so badly.

And now Luke's in the room with a plate of food as well. "Oh, pictures!" he says, and Ashton groans, because no one was supposed to see these. Luke eats a few eggs before examining the laptop. "Hey, I remember that! Halloween!" Luke says. Luke and Ashton are dressed up as Batman and Robin in the picture, while Michael is Spiderman and Calum is Captain America.

"Those costumes were really hot." Calum mumbles.

"They were." Luke agrees. "How many pictures do you have, Ashton?" Ashton shrugs and scrolls to the top. In the corner it says 5,000. "Wow, what if camera's didn't exist?" Luke grinned. Ashton pointed to his forehead with a smile. 'I'd remember all the moments.'

_And now Michael's here._

"Oh my god!" Michael spits out his drink (which was red punch) and it gets over his own white shirt. "DELETE THAT IMMEDIATELY ASHTON!" Michael yells, putting his plate on the table and points at the picture of him with pink hair. He's wearing star sunglasses and he was only in his boxers. He has a lamp in one hand and a beer bottle in the other. Calum and Luke had burst into a fit of giggles. "How come I've never seen this?" Calum asks.

'It was his birthday last year. You passed out in the sink.' Ashton signs.

"You mean the bath tub." Calum says.

' _No_ I mean the sink.' Luke laughs.

"I can't believe you guys!" Luke mumbles.

"Ashton, do you have any videos?" Michael suddenly asks. Ashton shakes his head. "What the hell?! Come on, Ash! The technology of this generation is advanced enough to where we can record our lives! Alright guys, let's do the first video now." Michael scoots Ashton out of the chair and starts to mess around with the webcam. "You have to remember these moments, Ash." Michael says seriously, still messing with the webcam. "We're gonna be gone one day, and you don't even have a single video of us. Let's make this first one count, yeah?"

The camera flashes once, and the four boys show up in the corner of the screen. "Alright, Luke, you're the lover boy so you get to sit right here." Michael hops up from the chair and pushes Luke into the spot. "Say something to future Ash." Michael whispers. Luke grins.

"Uh, dear future Ashton. Uh, I'm Luke and I am currently with a bunch of seventeen and eighteen year olds that are obsessed with your camera and with each other, so here's us, talking to you." Luke begins. "This is Calum." Luke waves his arms at the raven haired boy in the back. "Why am I telling you that? He's your brother! Your lovely brother that's obsessed with almonds and some shitty band that will never get past youtube covers."

"Hey, hey, maybe we should keep introducing ourselves! Show it to your kids and grandkids!" Michael suggests. "How do you know-?" Luke begins.

"You never know." Michael clears his throat. "Hiii I'm Michael. Ashton's brother. I'm better than Calum. And Luke. And Ashton. I'm better than you. Accept it!"

"You're not!" Calum laughs, and Ashton's laughing too.

"Alright, whoever's watching this. May it'll be Ashton watching this tomorrow, or next week, or in a couple years, or someone we don't know, we're...." Luke pauses, and glances at Cal.

"We're 5 seconds of summer!" Calum laughs.

"And we're probably the weirdest bundle of boys you'll encounter. We're family."

"Incest." Michael whispers, tapping Ashton's shoulder.

"Shut up," Luke whispers playfully.

"Anyways, whoever is watching this, you'll never forget us, isn't that right boys?" Luke grins.

"You'll never, ever, ever forget us! You might not know much about us but know this. This guy," Michael points at Calum. "And this one." He points at Luke. "And this one." he finally points at Ashton. "Are the best family anyone can ask for. Isn't that right, Ashton?" They all glance at Ashton, and he's blushing and smiling widely.

"That's right!" Michael answers for him and Michael suddenly tackled him and they toppled onto the floor. Calum and Luke hopped onto them too, and now they're all in hysterics.

The clip ended itself just after that.

~

A couple years after that, Ashton got a degree in photography. He went to speech therapy, even though he said he wouldn't, but he did. He can't talk perfectly, but he can talk, and that's enough for him. Calum had insisted that they continued the band thing, so they did.

Ashton's father had been arrested and sent to court, and to everyone's relief, he was proven guilty.

The four boys decided to move in together, and now Ashton's living with his two brothers and his husband. That's right. Luke proposed the day of Ashton's graduation from college.

And whenever he sees Michael and Calum wrestling, or playing guitar or singing and being obnoxious he smiles. Sometimes they go to the meadow. And Michael and Calum are happy, and so is Luke.

It took a while, but they all finally got their happily ever after.

**A/N: That was such a crappy ending. I've never finished a story before in my life. Okay, thank you everyone who read this and voted and commented! I love you~ Blue**


	31. ????Closure???? !!!!!PREQUEL!!!!

Give me a second I  
I need to get my story straight  
Michael's in the bathroom getting higher than the empire state...

Helllloooooo  
Blue here  
Duh  
So SSFDE is over (NOOOOOO) that means you've just read the ending of these boys lives. wow it makes it sound like they died. No they lived happily ever after! Ashton and Luke adopted a kid named Niall (um) and Michael and Calum are uncles and yay!!

Anyways, I would do the cliche thing and say that this was just the beginning, but really it's not. Chasing the clouds is the beginning. Yay prequel!!! Tell your friends! Tell your mom, tell your dad. Tell that guy that sits by you during history that you never talk to!

Just a fair heads up for Chasing The Clouds, Calum's going to be about fourteen, Michael will be fifteen, and Ashton will be thirteen. That'll leave Harry to be ten. There will be Malum, and a lot of it!

I have a few chapters already published on Wattpad, however, chances are I probably **_will_** post the prequel on A03, but for right now you'll probably have to read it on Wattpad.

Who's excited? I am! If you have any questions comment (or inbox me) and I'll reply.

If you remember from the chapter _Sex, Drugs, And A Little Rain_ Michael talks about him and Calum's past, which included drugs, abuse(sexual, physical and mental) prostitution and depression. These can be sensitive topics for some people so I'll put a warning here and a warning on the first chapter of Chasing The Clouds.

Thanks for taking the time to read my crappy story and listen to me babble on a lot  
I wove you~ Blue


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